BS: threadkiller!

Subject: RE: BS: threadkiller!
From: Bee
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 04:16 PM

I've killed a few threads that I've taken an interest in. Worse, though, are the threads I start myself and also end, with that very first post.

Usually, though, they are questions or requests about a song which I mistakenly consider not all that obscure and not unrelated to folk, but which apparently are utterly unknown or in the disgraced category of Songs Of Which We Do Not Speak. (I wish some one would give me that list.)

Subject: RE: BS: threadkiller!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 01:47 PM

JohnInKansas....brilliant analysis! ;-) You have pretty well covered it, I think.

There is one more thing that happens, though. Some people are attracted to the longer, more serious posts...such as yours...and read them carefully while skipping over or barely glancing at a whole bunch of shorter posts. That happened to me on this thread when I saw your post.

Nevertheless, you have caught the essence of what tends most often to happen on Mudcat threads, and this is one reason why the wording of a thread title is quite crucial. With good wording in the title, a thread may go far. Without good wording in the title it may die an early and undeserved death.

Subject: RE: BS: threadkiller!
From: PoppaGator
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 01:20 PM

beachcomber, I'm in awe. Even as a GUEST, you manage to kill more than your share of threads, unlike any mere "amateur"? Good for you!

(Not this time, however....LOL)

I'll confess to occasionally skipping long messages in a thread, skipping to the end, and interjecting my own take. There are plenty enough threads I never open, of course, and when I do find a title that sparks my interest, I generally try to read everything in it, especially those discussions I find when they're still new, and which I manage to track pretty reguarly while ongoing.

But, yeah, there have been occasions when I've skipped over l-o-o-o-n-g posts, especially when they're the work of someone whose opinion I think I already know all too well. And of course, I'm more likely to skip expressions of opinions with which I expect to disagree ~ but I'll skip at least some lengthy expressions of viewpoints akin to my own, as well.

Subject: RE: BS: threadkiller!
From: GUEST,beachcomber
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 11:45 AM

Now look here, we can't have just any amateur coming along and "killing" threads like that. My job is to do precisely that and I have been carrying it out , fairly successfully ,if I do say so myself, for several years now.
Here, Gerroff!
There that's another job done.

Subject: RE: BS: threadkiller!
From: jacqui.c
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 08:32 AM

Now that you mention it Poppagator, I've sometimes had that feeling...........

Subject: RE: BS: threadkiller!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 05:06 AM

As a practical matter, at mudcat it is virtually impossible for the "last person who posts" to "kill a thread."

The reason for this being impracticable in reality is the very large number of persons who may read (part of) the first post and then jump immediately to the end to post their "contributions" - without ever looking at any intervening posts.

There are also a few who read only posts by "certain people" with whom they enjoy arguing debating. These people may scan the list of posters for familiar names, click on the victim's favored person's name to go directly to that post, and then jump to the end to post their re-BUTT-al. In many cases it's quite obvious that the poster read neither the first nor the last post, much less anything in between.

While there are a number who simply jump to the last post and add their bits of wisdom, it seems pretty obvious that they click into the thread because of the title, read nothing of the previous posts and contributed their little "booger of brightness." A small percentage of these may actually look at the last post, but will not likely be dissuaded from posting.

The most likely cause for a "pause" in a thread, which sometimes is terminal is that a thoughtful poster, having read and considered all the prior content, posts a logical, rational, considered, and thoughtful comment that "breaks the mood" for the most prolific posters, who mostly just interject "smart remarks." Occasonally PoppaGator has been known to be in this group; but I've seen few of his posts that "Killed" a thread, although several may have "bludgeoned the mood."

While the above comments may appear to personally attack a few well-known personalities here, I beg the indulgence of the clones on the grounds that personages displaying virtually all the cited characteristics generally find it impossible to read a post more of than two sentences, and hence will never see, and would not recognize my concise and pithy assessments of their proclivities.

Let the seeking for knowledge and true wisdom continue.

John

Subject: RE: BS: threadkiller!
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 12:34 AM

Ummm...Maybe its your breath...

Subject: RE: BS: threadkiller!
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 07:54 PM

Every time I kill a thread, I think I must be a very boring person or something.

Now....I'm making myself very vulnerable here.

-Joe Boring-

Subject: RE: BS: threadkiller!
From: gnu
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 07:44 PM

And nobody posts some silly post just to agree.

Subject: RE: BS: threadkiller!
From: kendall
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 07:36 PM

Sometimes it's simply that it's all been said.

Subject: RE: BS: threadkiller!
From: PoppaGator
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 05:18 PM

God one, LH ;^)

"In everythread opmeone has to be last" is awfully dern long. Seems like everyone participating was trying to prevent anyone else from claiming tht distinction.

Gnomad, I'm glad to learn that someone else has felt the same way.

Subject: RE: BS: threadkiller!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 02:43 PM

Damn right.

There have been at least two previous threads about this very problem, Poppa Gator. One of them was called "Killing The Thread". It went on for ages, but the moderators finally closed it.

What if no one had seen fit to post on this thread after you started it? Now that would have been pretty funny. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: threadkiller!
From: beardedbruce
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 02:40 PM

"....what if I am (or you are) right? "

there are threads some of us would pay good money to kill.....

Subject: RE: BS: threadkiller!
From: gnomad
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 02:39 PM

No, PoppaGator, you are not alone, I too have felt that I have the killer touch. But I don't want someone to come up with the means of checking, the suspicion is enough....what if I am (or you are) right?

Subject: RE: BS: threadkiller!
From: gnu
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 02:15 PM

Bbruce... that might be a Café killer! Takes a lot of server if there are very many clicks!

Subject: RE: BS: threadkiller!
From: beardedbruce
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 01:55 PM

thread.cfm?threadid=67948&messages=2836

---

Linking to a 2836-message thread isn't fair. Link to the segmented version of the thread and save our bandwidth. Link altered accordingly.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: BS: threadkiller!
From: PoppaGator
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 01:51 PM

We've had quite a few occasional discussions here about who has posted the most individual messages, who has begun the most threads, etc.

There are so many members more active than I, with longer histories, that I am not even close to "winning" any of those categories.

However, I'd like to consider another category in which I certainly feel like a major contender: most threads in which one makes the final post.

I can't tell you how often I'll look into a discussion in which I've been taking part, curious to see what (if anything) anyone else might have to add, and finding nothing new, as the title inexorably drifts down to the bottom of the list and off into oblivion.

I'm not sure if this is a good or a bad thing. In real life, "having the last word" is much to be desired (usually). Here in cyberspace, I don't find it satisfying at all. On the one hand, maybe I summed everything up so perfectly that there's nothing more to say ~ on the other hand, maybe my contribution was so stupid or obnoxious that no one wants to talk about the topic anymore.

I can't imagine that there's any worklable/practical way to measure how many threads in which a given person is responsible for the last posting. And also, of course, the typical thread is always liable to be reopened, so the post which is last today may not be final forever; we see long-dormant threads revived very reguarly. (Now, when the moderators close a thread, the last word remains so forever; in some cases, that final posting may have been the "last straw" in a series of truly offensive offerings.)

Maybe lots of others feel the same way. Have you experienced the same kind of wonderment-bordering-on-disappointment at having a discussion die immeditaly after you put in your two cents' worth? Do you feel, as I do, that this is happening to you disproportionately often?

(Right now, at least a half-dozen threads are creeping steadily down the page into oblivion, with my fake-name the last on the list. I'm not imagining this!)

PS" "threadkiller" ~ not to be confused with "fretkillr"...