Do you Read the Entire Thread First or Do You Just Answer the Question?

Just curious. I tend to shoot first and then back-track (invariably repeating what someone else has already expressed with more grace, diplomacy and eloquence). You?

both

I generally type a few random sentences into a Word document and then paste it onto whatever thread is at the top of the new answers page

Good plan!

I guess if you have kids, especially, there's no way you can sit there and read whole threads. I gotta tell you I asked myself many times why the fuck I was still sat there reading that "Prince and Village People Dive Into Pirate Bay" thread, and the only answer was, I just didn't have anything better to do. But in my heart I was really sick and tired of that thread, can't believe people finally let it alone. Thank goodness!

More than 100 posts = answer first
Fewer than 100 posts = read thread first

I answer the question without reading anything, and often then leave the thread to never return.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/SamJackson.gif

I guess if you have kids, especially, there's no way you can sit there and read whole threads.

Especially at teatime, the whining ingrates.

I read the entire thread first to see if someone has already made the same obvious joke I want to make.

I read the entire thread, which is probably why I so rarely post.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/SamJackson.gif

Oh, wait. Didn't see that Noodle had posted that already.

It's brilliant.

It can't be posted enough, really.

Also I like that you can get 2 Samuels onscreen all at one and they're in sync on my puter.

Varies. Often just the latter though.

you kidding me? I ALWAYS read the thread... :)

Geir has a slight variation on the whole thing: read the entire thread, then post about the evils of James Brown's effects on music

If it's a new thread, I read it all. If it's a revive, I read the new stuff.

always show all messages (2133 of them)

One time I was the first person to answer. I could have waited to see what other people were going to say, and then read the entire thread, but I just jumped right in there.

If you don't read the thread first you are an idiot. or lazy.

since most threads often seem bumped from 5 years back i tend to read the latest posts (after the blank space, err) :)

I normally read the thread and think of something I want to say a third of the way down, only to find that by the end of the thread everyone's just swearing at each other and posting dick jokes and pictures of swans and it's a bit late for someone to wander in with some earnest tedium regarding something 80 posts ago.

And then I do so anyway.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v165/noodle_vague/SamJackson.gif

I didn't always, but now I definitely try to read (or at least skim) the whole thing before replying - too many occasions when somebody's already made the same lame joke as myself, and made it in a less lamely fashion. Also, I can think of at least two occasions where somebody's explicitly said "I can't believe that MVB hasn't posted so-and-so yet" followed by my actually posting so-and-so, 30 posts later, completely oblivious. Awkward...

Depends on length/content of the thread, but passing spacecadet otm basically. Usually though by the end of it what I wanted to say at 1/3 mark winds up being said and expanded upon by someone else, and more effectively so.

And thus I just photoshop Andrei Arshavin into something.

does anyone else ever get the sense that if they are shown to be the last person to post to a thread, then other ilxors tend to be averse to clicking on and/or posting to that same thread?

What do you mean? I'm not sure about that. I know sometimes some threads just sink and that's that.

I always read a thread if I want to post in it. It's disheartening being on the opposite timezone to everyone else though, cause I'll read a ripping great thread and want in on the agrument, but by the time I get to the end, like spacecadet said, it's devolved into lolcats and insults and isnt worth the bother :(

art-ghetto, is that a rhetorical question or are you speaking from experience? Because I've gotten that paranoid feeling many times - LOTSA threads that I appear to be the last one to post to. Making me feel that I either killed the thread all by myself, or just arrived way too late, after everyone's lost interest.

If we continue on the paranoia theme about being the last poster, someone is going to confirm their theory and get their feeling hurt for possible years.

Just answer the question, Claire.

I think there was a thread about that. "do you realize you killed this thread" or something...sorta like that...