You are viewing the historical archive of The Philosophy Forum.
For current discussions, visit the live forum.
Go to live forum

Forum Etiquette

WatchingRook March 21, 2020 at 15:39 2025 views 3 comments
I apologize if this question seems a little obvious, but this is the first forum I've been on that isn't just an image board. If I want to get involved in a discussion do I have to read every reply that came before me? It seems prudent in smaller threads, but when you pass a certain threshold of number of replies it seems like it just becomes really intimidating. For a post with 200+ replies should I read every last thing?

Comments (3)

ZhouBoTong March 21, 2020 at 23:04 #394617
Quoting WatchingRook
If I want to get involved in a discussion do I have to read every reply that came before me? It seems prudent in smaller threads, but when you pass a certain threshold of number of replies it seems like it just becomes really intimidating.


Sounds like you have it right. I do my best to read MOST posts before jumping in, but people here are reasonable as long as you don't jump in the middle and start disrupting an ongoing discussion (beneath each reply it shows how long ago it was posted - if 5 people have been going back and forth in a thread for the last 3 days and you jump in responding to the OP from 3 years ago, it can seem out of place).

I also have found that the moderators (not me) are pretty consistent about giving warnings on behavior before anyone gets particularly upset.

Also some threads (for example: All Trump Conversations Here thread) have thousands of posts and are much more stream-of-consciousness type threads...so I doubt anyone cares if you have read many of those posts before chiming in.

However, the more serious philosophy type threads (which often have far fewer posts) probably assume you are reading most everything.

I am no expert around here, but the people running this website usually give responses on these types of questions. I noticed it had been a few hours, so I gave my thoughts. If no one else says anything, I think we are safe to assume my advice was mostly correct...hopefully it mostly answers your question?

Welcome to the forum :smile:
Baden March 22, 2020 at 01:08 #394641
Quoting ZhouBoTong
. If no one else says anything, I think we are safe to assume my advice was mostly correct..


:up:

Reply to WatchingRook

Post in Feedback for a guaranteed answer from mods. Welcome to the forum!
WatchingRook March 22, 2020 at 16:12 #394779
Thank you for the responses! It's nice to have some of these questions validated!