

Do people really read long discussion threads? - geeku

I see that some of the threads grows so big that reading half way in reading I loose patience. Does people really ready such a huge thread and every ones comments?<p>Or in other words what is the effective size of a thread for a constructive discussion?
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brudgers
Yes. Sometimes. It depends on the topic, the participants, my mood, what else
is competing for my attention and hopefully, whether or not, I'm reacting or
reflecting

A political story with 200 comments? Well that will probably send me into
"Someone is wrong on the internet mode," and it really won't matter who is
participating, I'm less likely to learn something that's worth knowing and
more likely to call someone a moron - and there are more appropriate places on
the internet to do that.

A discussion where the people commenting are expressing _professional_
opinions, I'm more likely to read through a significant portion of the
comments and more likely to scan all or most of it...though I'll probably not
pay much attention to one-liners.

Since threads flow where they flow based on participants, and long threads are
often long because the topic drifts as the comments become more deeply nested
and generally more interesting to those commenting than those reading, I don't
feel any obligation toward reading anything.

Then again, I don't think constructive discussion is necessarily the important
goal...constructive expression is. What matters is not exactly that you write
something in response to what I write, what matters is if you do something and
writing in response is just one form that the doing might take.

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andyn
I'm actively trying not to spend too much time reading other people's opinions
on the internet these days, it's such a time sink and you do come away with
such a negative opinion of the world.

But I'll go through the comments if it's a subject I'm interested in _and_ the
comments are constructive or add to the original link. Often I've noticed a
pattern where the largest discussions start with a comment along the lines of
"This article is wrong because ..." and the reply "<quote from above comment>
No, it's not because ...". That's a sign to just close the tab.

I have Greasemonkey and the "Hacker News collapsible comments" script
installed:

[http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/138037](http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/138037)

I do recommend that for an improved HN procrastinating experience.

