You write up a big, long post about something that has been on your mind for a long time....

[Vigormortis]

-ignore-

What a coincidence. 'Ignore' is also a handy feature for dealing with long-winded arguments on this forum.

For real? That's crazy.

Am I in the minority here? How many people are literally spending hours typing out posts or selecting words? I'm actually curious now. *I'm not trying to be a dick*. I really cannot state that firmly enough. I am not trying to be a dick. I'm just...really surprised.

The longest amount of time I've ever spent on a post was either on one with a lot of video links (spoilered, naturally) for music threads or a post wherein I'm having to quote numerous people. Can't say I've ever spent more than 10 minutes on a post, tops.

If it ever comes to a point where I find myself having to type out a long-winded explanation of things and doing a host of research online to find appropriate links and citations, I just think to myself, "Why the hell am I doing this? It's not my job to do the research for this other poster. If they want to know more about the topic, let them Google it."

And with that I usually just leave the thread and move on. Besides, most people just 'TL;DR' long posts anyway.

 

[Paragon Fury]

...then just delete because its not worth the fight it would cause.

Its like...damn. What did I just spend two hours doing that for?

Two hours?!

http://www.typingtest.com/blog/5-shortcuts-to-increase-your-typing-speed/

Yeah I've sometimes gotten a paragraph or two into a response to a topic before deciding I just can't be assed to finish it. Either because I'm not happy with my post, or because in the time it's taken me to start crafting a reply I've lost interest in the subject.

To be fair, it was like 10 paragraphs long (I wasn't done yet either) and I was procrastinating the hell out of it.

 

[Pirate Of PC Master race]

For real? That's crazy.

Am I in the minority here? How many people are literally spending hours typing out posts or selecting words? I'm actually curious now. *I'm not trying to be a dick*. I really cannot state that firmly enough. I am not trying to be a dick. I'm just...really surprised.

Don't ask me, I am the one who spends easily 20 minutes on a single sentence here.(and no offence taken. I think writing as a thought - shaping exercise)

It is not exactly most productive behavior, but more of.... Perfectionism behavior.

Think of it as some kind of self-inflicted grammar nazism or variation of OCD-like behavior. I just like to express my thought with a minimal amount of misunderstanding.

 

[Creator002]

Yeah. Sometimes I spend a lot of time writing something I end up deleting.
I don't really bother with stating my opinion on the issues around here much anymore. What I think is usually said before I get there, and I don't really care anymore.

 

[Remus]

I've only done this a couple times on forums, and it was because something someone said or something that happened in a game struck a very raw nerve and I had to know if normal people were this way or just the ones I had encountered. Hindsight quickly caught up before I made the post though, which almost certainly could have earned some minor disciplinary action from the mods.

Now in game, all the time! Usually because it's general chat and it's racing by so fast that any semblance of actual discussion is lost well before my reply is finished.

 

[Paragon Fury]

Heh.

Spent an hour recording a video to say what I would do to World of Warcraft to fix it. Almost done when my landlord knocks and barges in to ask for help with something.

Whelp, there goes an hour.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

My post count would be triple what it is now if I'd finished every post I started.

Of course, I would've been banned five times over by now, too.

Heh.

Spent an hour recording a video to say what I would do to World of Warcraft to fix it. Almost done when my landlord knocks and barges in to ask for help with something.

Whelp, there goes an hour.

Do you not have editing software?

 

[Username Redacted]

...then just delete because its not worth the fight it would cause.

Its like...damn. What did I just spend two hours doing that for?

Two hours? No. But I would say that ~1/2 of the posts I start never make it to 'Post'. Whether it's a lengthy explanation on how someone has completely missed the point of competitive fighting games or the beginning of a doctoral thesis on why someone's taste in anime is provably shit some fights just aren't worth it. This post for example almost didn't make it because it required me looking up my password to log back into the site.

 

[Paragon Fury]

My post count would be triple what it is now if I'd finished every post I started.

Of course, I would've been banned five times over by now, too.

Heh.

Spent an hour recording a video to say what I would do to World of Warcraft to fix it. Almost done when my landlord knocks and barges in to ask for help with something.

Whelp, there goes an hour.

Do you not have editing software?

Nope.

 

[KissingSunlight]

It happened to me about a month ago. I was at work. I thought of something that I really wanted to rant about online. So, I wrote it down on my break. When I read it a few hours later, I wasn't as passionate about it as I was before. I guess I needed to vent about it. I didn't post it, because I knew I would get the same mix of people agreeing with me and people getting upset at me. Along with people who just want to screw with me for having an audacity to express an opinion.

 

[VanQ]

The thing that's always on my mind is this. What would my reaction have been to that big long post you wrote in reply to my comment? I'd have loved to read it.

Anyone else wonder about the posts meant to reply to them before they disappeared into the ether before we even had a chance to know they existed?

 

[Lightspeaker]

...then just delete because its not worth the fight it would cause.

Its like...damn. What did I just spend two hours doing that for?

All the time. Literally all the time. I write things up and then think "people are just going to take this the wrong way, get all angry and generally cause a lot of unpleasantness when it wasn't supposed to" or I think "no I don't REALLY want to get involved in the massive argument going on right now so I'll just leave it".

Hell as a specific example the other day I spent half an hour writing up some comments on that "is cisgender offensive" thread and then thought "no, you know what? I'm not going to post my thoughts here because I'll just get attacked by someone no matter WHAT I write because some people here aren't looking for opinions, they're looking for an echo chamber and to bash anyone who says different to them". So I didn't bother, deleted the lot.

Turns out exhausting people and making them disillusioned with hatred and attacks can work. Because it just makes them not care to even get involved anymore.

I don't know about you, but some people like me spend hours to choose words that are appropriate for precise expression of opinion.

For real? That's crazy.

Am I in the minority here? How many people are literally spending hours typing out posts or selecting words? I'm actually curious now. *I'm not trying to be a dick*. I really cannot state that firmly enough. I am not trying to be a dick. I'm just...really surprised.

I've been known to spend three hours writing a multiple-thousand word post, editing it four or five times to change my wording and rephrase and then just delete it after deciding against posting it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Used to do that pretty often, nowadays I have a "single line" rule. Anything more than that isn't worth my time.

 

[nomzy]

Yeah that happens to me a lot.
Hell, it happens with smaller posts too.
Usually whatever I wanted to say has already been said.