How often do you start posting a reply and...

[clippen05]

You see something infuriating and you start thinking out how you are going to respond to this guy who just insulted feminism/'hardcore' gamers/casualgamers/consolegamers/pcgamers/something I like/ etc. You start going to town asking refuting his points and asking him to provide sources yada yada yada. But then, after you finish your typing tirade, or maybe before you finish, you just stop and think, 'Why bother.' You close the page.

This has been me quite often lately. Oftentimes I'm up for a debate, but sometimes I just can't be bothered. Maybe its because of the strong feelings many people have on feminism and gamersgate and all that lately, but I just don't see the point when lately, it feels like nothing productive will get accomplished. I'd say people on this forums are usually have an open mind, but so many people lately seem to think that AnitaSarkeesian/ZoeQuinn/4Chan/etc can do no wrong (depending on what side you are on) I personally am skeptical about Anita Sarkeesian, but I don't go around that she's the most despicable being on the planet who deserves a place next to Hitler in hell. Similarly, I identify hugely as a 'hardcore gamer' but don't think that there is no such thing as a place for 'casual gamers.' But yet you have people who refuse to consider for an instant that there is a difference between the two and no arguing will change that. Maybe when we get past this gamersgate fiasco, people will start being more open to opinions, but as of late, it feels like people are black and white and refuse to consider the other colour for even an instant.

Has anyone else ever done this. Start constructing an elaborate post to engage in mindless debate and just stop? I know that I've made 'am I the only one' threads in the past, and that the conensus of all of these types of threads is always 'no, there is always someone else', but in this regard I would wonder the reasons why other people might start typing out and just stop and realise its not worth it.

 

[Longing]

Yeah man, especially with the kind of topics going around right now. I start a reply then I just say fuck it and save myself some grief. Most talks these days just end up going in circles anyways and I don't have the patience for dozens of comments repeating the same mantra.

I close the tab and consider myself a winner. I'll stick to game related threads or silly stuff until this blows over.

 

[Cyberstrike_v1legacy]

You see something infuriating and you start thinking out how you are going to respond to this guy who just insulted feminism/'hardcore' gamers/casualgamers/consolegamers/pcgamers/something I like/ etc. You start going to town asking refuting his points and asking him to provide sources yada yada yada. But then, after you finish your typing tirade, or maybe before you finish, you just stop and think, 'Why bother.' You close the page.

This has been me quite often lately. Oftentimes I'm up for a debate, but sometimes I just can't be bothered. Maybe its because of the strong feelings many people have on feminism and gamersgate and all that lately, but I just don't see the point when lately, it feels like nothing productive will get accomplished. I'd say people on this forums are usually have an open mind, but so many people lately seem to think that AnitaSarkeesian/ZoeQuinn/4Chan/etc can do no wrong (depending on what side you are on) I personally am skeptical about Anita Sarkeesian, but I don't go around that she's the most despicable being on the planet who deserves a place next to Hitler in hell. Similarly, I identify hugely as a 'hardcore gamer' but don't think that there is no such thing as a place for 'casual gamers.' But yet you have people who refuse to consider for an instant that there is a difference between the two and no arguing will change that. Maybe when we get past this gamersgate fiasco, people will start being more open to opinions, but as of late, it feels like people are black and white and refuse to consider the other colour for even an instant.

Has anyone else ever done this. Start constructing an elaborate post to engage in mindless debate and just stop? I know that I've made 'am I the only one' threads in the past, and that the conensus of all of these types of threads is always 'no, there is always someone else', but in this regard I would wonder the reasons why other people might start typing out and just stop and realise its not worth it.

Yeah pretty much. This feud, war, shitstorm, or whatever you want to call it has been brewing for a long time and I think it's going to last a long time.

 

[shrekfan246]

All the time. Not even with debate threads but in "normal" ones as well. Just today I've probably closed out at least three or four tabs after having typed up a post already. I'll probably be tempted to do it to this one as well.

"It's not worth it" is how I get past a lot of things that would otherwise frustrate me. This is the internet, and if nothing else it has taught me that people on the internet are not interested in actually changing or having their opinions and beliefs challenged in any way.

And honestly, my stress factor goes down by magnitudes when I stop reading posts and threads about the latest nontroversy people on the internet are getting their knickers twisted over, because when I take a step back I tend to realize how little my life is actually impacted in any form by them.

 

[Prime_Hunter_H01]

Quite a lot actually, its not always just from those that are not worth the time, some times I respond to a thread when I have a a good response but no matter how i write it i can only see how I failed to write it well enough.

I close the tab and consider myself a winner. I'll stick to game related threads or silly stuff until this blows over.

Though I do find it hard to find game and fun threads when ever something big happens.

You can tell this one is bad because there have been barely any fun threads and those that do show up are flashes in the pan that don't get to become interesting before they are forced off by the repeated threads about the controversy.

 

[Vault101]

sometimes yeah if I can't be bothered or if I'm so irritated I won't give this person anymore of my time or I feel I don't have a strong enough/cohearant argument to make...OR if I've finally reached the end of my teather

that said not nearly enough....

 

[Elfgore]

All of time. Usually in response to something controversial or typing something that could be. I usually find everything goes better if I hit X on that tab and go to forum games.

 

[Mezahmay]

I've done that three times today alone. I wish I'd done more forum reply dodging in the past few weeks and it's something I should probably do more going forward.

 

[Spanglish Guy]

Yeah I tend to do this a lot too. It tends to be on the grounds of either I don't really want a part of the discussion, realising that arguing with some people gets you nowhere anyway, or after thinking about the topic realising that I don't really have much to add.

 

[Zhukov]

All the time.

I'll be halfway through a sentence-by-sentence breakdown and suddenly I'll just go, "Fuck it, I have better things to do with my spare time."

Also happens with other threads when I realise that what I'm writing is nowhere near as funny as it sounded in my head.

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Constantly. Quite a lot in normal threads, too, since I tend to try not to even click on things that look like they're (going to be) a shitstorm.

I always feel a bit of anxiety when I see "Quoted" in my message box, too, which leads me to sometimes reconsider posting things that could engender a hostile response. Which is pretty much any post containing an opinion, really.

 

[FootloosePhoenix]

Yeah, I do that all the time, though it's not because I'm frequently on the verge of getting into a big debate. I rarely ever do that these days and in fact I never have on this particular forum. I just decide, more often than not, that what I was going to say simply wasn't worth the effort to type or somebody else in the thread had already summed up what I was going to express. This is why I don't ever rack up a lot of posts on forums.

I always feel a bit of anxiety when I see "Quoted" in my message box, too, which leads me to sometimes reconsider posting things that could engender a hostile response. Which is pretty much any post containing an opinion, really.

Same here. Actually, it's sort of a mix between a giddiness of "Someone noticed something I said!" and a dread of "Oh god, someone noticed something I said..." I've had social anxiety in real life for pretty much as long as I can remember, but oddly enough, that anxiety only started translating onto the Internet during the past few years. It kinda blows.

 

[A_Parked_Car]

I do that kind of thing all the time, even with posts that aren't particularly provocative in any way. Sometimes I just no longer feel like posting by the time I have typed up a reply.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Yep.

Though, if you do that, the terrorists win (assuming that the person who were going to argue with is a terrorist).

There's no obvious difference between "I don't have a reply because you're totally wrong" and "I don't have a reply because I'm totally wrong", and other people might be following the discussion.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

While I often don't reply to threads after writing paragraphs of my thoughts, I've yet to experience that in the way you describe OP. I mean sometimes I quote someone very quickly in an emotional reaction and then begin to write why I disagree before dropping the matter and leaving it unsaid but I've yet to do so over any GG/SJW thing. I don't intend to start either.

 

[Fappy]

All the time.

I'll be halfway through a sentence-by-sentence breakdown and suddenly I'll just go, "Fuck it, I have better things to do with my spare time."

Also happens with other threads when I realise that what I'm writing is nowhere near as funny as it sounded in my head.

I usually just post my bad jokes anyway.

I'm an attention whore.

OT: I do this all the time. Sometimes the stupid overwhelms me and I feel compelled to educate some poor sap, only to find that I no longer give a fuck once I am done writing my reply.

 

[ghalleon0915]

I've done this more times than I can count. A lot of times I will type a response, then let it sit there for a bit before posting it. It gives me time to evaluate my post, kind of like " think before you speak" except you are afforded more time to think.

I don't mind healthy debates/discussions, but by and large most people are only interested in forcing their opinions on others. It's why I avoided that whole "thing"...which strangely enough no one I've talked to are even aware of, and a lot of them are gamers.

 

[Colour Scientist]

All the time.

I'll be halfway through a sentence-by-sentence breakdown and suddenly I'll just go, "Fuck it, I have better things to do with my spare time."

Also happens with other threads when I realise that what I'm writing is nowhere near as funny as it sounded in my head.

I usually just post my bad jokes anyway.

Yeah, me too, I'm constantly making an arse out of myself.

I mostly give up on posts halfway through when posting in argumentative threads where it's obvious the other person isn't going to budge. Especially when it's one of those people who doesn't know how to debate properly and just completely ignores your points in order to post unrelated stuff to prove that the opposition are shitty people and therefore they win.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

I do it every now and again. I tend to not post it if I feel like it's going to get a dozen people quoting me angrily, since I'm not really all that into arguments. But other times I don't post what I've written just because I don't think my point is all that valid or well constructed, or whatever else.

 

[Davey Woo]

I often start posting something, and either forget I've typed stuff and head back to the home-page or I just give up on it. A lot of the time it's because I realise that I'm offering nothing new to the conversation, or that I know nobody will respond to my little post as it's lost in the quagmire of posts off the first page of the thread.