Do you look at the poster's screenname before replying to a thread?

[Bossy Monkey]

There are a lot a lot a lot of people here feeling ignored because their threads consistently fall to the archives with few or no responses and a pretty high percentage of them take it personally. I would point out that DU and especially the Lounge are very fast-moving and that unless you're willing to bite the bullet and kick your own threads every now and again you shouldn't be surprised if they dive off the front page early and often. (If you think there's a major problem with good threads getting ignored, you could sort the board by number of replies and head for page 20, kicking worthwhile threads with zero replies.)

I appreciate that posters like WilliamPitt and Matcom have a lot easier time getting replies, and there are many here who will suggest that this means that DU is conspicuously cliquish. Then again, maybe they have just posted a lot of interesting stuff in their gazillion posts each, and so people are more likely to click on them and reply. Ya think?

For my part, I probably always notice who posted the thread I've clicked on, just because I generally read every word that's in front of me, but who started the thread isn't likely to affect me unless it's somebody I really like but seldom see like ForrestGump. Mostly I reply if I have something to say and don't if I don't. Pretty simple, really.

I think I just wrote the poll with the most words in it ever. Do I get a cookie?

[Neoma]

1. I only look at the title at first.

:)

[xmas74]

2. I just read the the title and statement.

If something pops into my head at that exact moment, then I will reply. Otherwise, I try to come back and reply at a later time.
There are nights when I have nothing else going on at home and I have made a reply to every single thread just to make sure that everyone gets a response.
But as to the poster of the thread-no.

[thecai]

3. I Do NOW

I used to post on whatever thread looked interesting, informative, or humorous. But NOW I'm exercising more caution as I learn there are more bigots and rw's here than I first realized.
Some posters are incapable of disagreeing without flaming.

[MsConduct]

4. The subject of the thread is what pulls me in. If I feel I have

something to contribute, I do. If it's a clever thread, I'll check out the contributors name and check for other threads by that person.
But I don't avoid a thread because of who the author might be.

[Bossy Monkey]

5. The point of this little exercise was to demonstrate that folks by & large

don't much care whose name is next to the subject line, and maybe it does. I think the person voting for the first choice might done so out of sarcasm; I certainly wrote it that way.

[progmom]

6. the title is what pulls me in

some people are really good at titling their threads.

what's interesting - sometimes i will post a thread that gets no hits. i go in, change the title...and viola! tons of replies!

[Catchawave]

7. I only respond to topics I'm interested in.

And I read many, many more than I respond to! Perhaps one day DU will have a view count ? That might make people feel better :)

[NoSheep]

8. Ditto.

[Bossy Monkey]

9. We did for a few weeks after the changeover to DU2 (7/6/03) but

it was too much of a drain on the server. We also could vote on threads, but that lasted even less long.

[Bossy Monkey]

10. Well, do ya? nt