

Ask HN: Do you write comments, and then not submit them? - wooby

I find myself writing comments, looking them over, and then not submitting them pretty often.  A friend of mine is the same way.<p>I'm just curious how common this is.
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aneesh
Plenty of times. Sometimes I even submit them and delete them a minute later.

I felt like I had something interesting to say, but when I actually
articulated it, it didn't add much to the conversation. If you noticed PG's
essay that he wrote with Etherpad, he had entire paragraphs in his draft that
didn't make it to the final version.

~~~
Xichekolas
Even more than that, sometimes while writing a comment I'll realize my
position is flawed. I generally try and make sure my argument is sound before
I submit, because I know you can't get by on hand-waving here. Often in my
search for data to support my case, or even when I just try to articulate it
properly, I find that I'm actually arguing the wrong side of something.

Being forced to re-examine my own positions is one of the things I enjoy most
about a discussion, whether it's caused by something someone else says or
something I almost said, then thought better of.

(Also, most things I've submitted within the last 10 minutes are being
furiously edited. Not sure why, but I don't notice a lot of things until I
read my own post in the context of the others.)

~~~
jay_kyburz
Something related...

I will write an email with a question or concern and in writing the email I
will argue the point and discover I already know the answer.

~~~
PieSquared
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_Duck_Debugging>

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lunchbox
The number of people answering "yes" to this post might be underrepresented by
selection bias :)

~~~
Sephr
Made a poll of this question for that reason:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=629642>

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devin
Definitely. I don't usually submit comments unless something gets my goat or I
feel like there is an important angle that isn't being articulated. Basically,
the question I ask myself is "Am I adding value to this conversation?" If the
answer is no for any reason I either modify the comment or skip it altogether.

Sorry to use the parlance of our times, but people who submit everything they
type are IMO "that guy".

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ChrisXYZ
Yeah, I do it fairly often.

If I find myself putting too much work into a comment I think to myself, "How
many people are actually going to read this? What effect is it really going to
have on anything? Do I really want to do all this work for something that will
disappear into the internet ether?"

I really only leave comments if I can fire them off quickly and I'm in the
right mood.

~~~
grandalf
I've done this before, but the usual pattern for me is to delete the first two
paragraphs after realizing that the third paragraph is really all I wanted to
say :)

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lallysingh
All the time. This is the only place I do that. Mostly the quick joke I'd
submit to /. or reddit.

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ryanwaggoner
Ironically, I'm virtually certain that I wrote this exact question and then
decided not to submit it :)

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tjr
Sure, I've only posted perhaps 1/2 to 2/3 of the comments I've written. They
weren't necessarily inflammatory comments, but just didn't add anything useful
to the conversation.

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raganwald
At least once before submitting this:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=629784>

~~~
zimbabwe
jrockway is a bright person who happens to be a smarmy jerk every time he gets
into arguing one of his pet peeves. I've learned to ignore his jackassery and
respect him for when he talks about the things he's really bright about.

Operating system debates are like sports team arguments: yes, one sports team
is better than all the others, but nobody will ever agree on just which that
is, the arguments get far too fierce, and it's the greatest waste of time
imaginable.

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azanar
Relatively rarely. I usually try to develop an intuitive sense of where my
argument wants to go before I start typing, and I'm sure many a potential
comment has been culled this way. When I'm typing along and find that I hit a
contradiction, or something indicating something in my intuition has gone
afoul, my first thought is usually: huh, I wonder how many other people think
this. I've found that seeing someone's train of thought is at least as
interesting as seeing where it concluded.

On the other hand, there have been many times where I'd thought about
commenting, but could not get an intuitive grasp of what I wanted to say, and
would keep deleting the first sentence as soon as I wrote it. On those
occasions, I would just press 'Back' and keep reading.

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Radix
Yes, but more often I'll spend some time writing a comment then fret about
word order a bit before submitting it. Immediately after submitting it I'll
realize my fretting has mangled my intended message and I'll have to edit the
comment.

After I'm content I'll realize that my comment doesn't really add anything to
the conversation and I should delete it before it wastes anybodies time.

...see, this comment is articulated well enough, but it's long-winded in
comparison to aneesh's post which says the essential thing.

Edit: After a shower, at 22 minutes with nothing. I feel like deleting this
comment, but with that being the subject of this post that would be out of
place.

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paulgb
I do this on other sites more often, but occasionally on HN as well. It's
usually when I'm not satisfied with the way I worded the comment.

More often what I do is write a several paragraph reply, and then cut it down
to a few sentences.

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tailingoff
Yes. I was heavily downvoted for a couple posts defending an unpopular opinion
in a busy discussion. I didn't flame but got flamed. I sincerely posted my
views and I guess everyone decided I was an idiot or a troll. Because my
account is trivially linked to my real name I've been posting fluff to push
the discussion off of casual viewing on the front page of my comments so I can
abandon my account.

I'll keep reading because the comments and selection are still good, but I
don't see any reason to stick my neck out again. One easily-Googled example of
a generally high-quality community decide I suck is plenty.

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siculars
i would say it is more common than not. i find that writing out the thought
often helps crystallize your thoughts and at that point what you thought may
not be worth submitting after you actually see it in front of you.

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jonshea
I probably write and delete (or abandon) two posts for every one that I
actually public. Blogs I post on are thick with unpublished drafts. Usually I
abandon posts because I’m not pleased with the writing. I also abandon posts
because I feel I can’t make my point clearly or rigorously enough to justify
asking other people to read it.

I don’t like writing. For me, writing is always ‘homework’, even when I like
what I’m writing about. That might be why I find it so easy to walk away from
things that I’ve written.

In contrast, I love arguing or explaining things in person.

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edw519
Rarely.

I gave up long ago trying to judge my own comments and submissions.

I often submit what I think is a great article and it dies on the "new" page
without any votes. Or I'll make what I think is a good comment and no one
cares.

OTOH, sometimes I'll just throw something off the top of my head and it gets
something started.

I just try to not be a jerk (most of the time) and submit what I'm thinking.
Let the community be the judge.

~~~
ErrantX
> I often submit what I think is a great article and it dies on the "new" page
> without any votes.

I made a few self submissions of things I thought were great, interesting
concepts and which garnered no interest at all.

Those interest me more than a strong debate TBH, there was plenty of click
through but no real interest in my thoughts. It's a non-starter. These things
are good to know!

HN taught me a lot about how hard you have to work to have a respected
opinion. Which is good :)

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barrybe
Yeah, fairly often.

I think the most common reason for me to cancel a comment is just knowing how
internet people are. People on the internet, especially software people, are
really really critical. I think there's a certain group of people that browse
forums with the sole intention of pointing out how other people are wrong.

So sometimes if I have a slightly controversial opinion, I will just not
bother commenting, because I don't feel like dealing with the nitpickers.

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CyberFonic
I tend to read Hacker News in bulk, that is, I ctrl-right click on links and
then read them. By the time I get around to some entries and write a comment,
it has expired and won't take.

If I think what I wrote is good I might go back and find the entry again and
resubmit. Other times I just shrug and skip it.

Would be _Real Nice_ if comments didn't time out / expire.

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ErrantX
I just wrote a reply to a comment in this thread - then decided not to post.

I'd say I write as many non-comments as ones I post. :)

(someone else talks about flawed arguments: I have the same thing, often what
Gut spews out in response to a comment sounds like total BS to head when you
read it back properly :))

And yes, like others, I do the furious edit thing too :D

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aston
<http://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll>

~~~
Sephr
Good idea, I created a poll with a similar question (it asks for how often
instead of a boolean response).

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hagusmcfee
I remember seeing this on digg, and reddit.

This thread is a call to arms for idiots everywhere. Hell, I never would have
post if it were not for this thread. I never post, but I enjoy reading the
good posts here that people put thought into making. Beware, HN!

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chanux
Yeah I do. I've deleted one comment RIGHT after posting too.

Never deleted comments which are being judged (Upvoted(obviosly) or down
voted). I am man enough to bear the judgments.

One thing this community do for good is they only let quality comments in.

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jsz0
Sure, all the time.

Sometimes it just doesn't add anything interesting. Sometimes it's just too
big of an idea to explain in a couple paragraphs. Sometimes I'm just not not
sure my opinion is well informed enough to commit to the Internet forever.

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jwilliams
Certainly do. What I do lately is I tend to stay logged out when I read YC.

I find the activation energy to log in is high enough to be useful -- so I
generally only log in and comment / post when I really have something to say.

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hellweaver666
Frequently. I know for a fact that I'm not as articulate or as clever as half
the guys on HN so I figure sometimes it's better to say nothing at all than to
say something stupid. If I want to post dumb comments, I go to Reddit ;)

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keefe
No, I go to internet forums so I can suffer run of the mouth disease with
impunity. I do proofread and edit my posts carefully to avoid making an undue
ass out of myself, insofar as 1 minute of proofreading can do.

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mattchew
Sure. Sometimes I have something I'd like to say, but I can't say it well
enough to be satisfied with submitting. Other times I decide my comment, or
the whole conversation, just really isn't that interesting.

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sunir
I'm the reverse. I stopped commenting online a long time ago, but Hacker News
is the only place that I bother. Conversations here tend to go places.

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Silentio
On Hacker News, definite yes. Other sites, not so often. But I am not moved to
comment on other sites as often as I am here.

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donaq
Yes, but then I do this for every site I participate in, because Goddess
forbid I am wrong on the internet.

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jganetsk
I usually DO submit my comments, and regret it. This a tough crowd, and the
system works very effectively.

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zandorg
Yes. Sometimes I don't want my ramblings on public record, or I may think it's
way off topic.

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quellhorst
No. I resist the temptation to not submit them. Even on this one.

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msb
Did it three times on this thread alone. Here's hoping for 15!

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slmbrhrt
Most of the time, yes.

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pasbesoin
Yes.

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seamlessvision
yes

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erlanger

      # withholding long-winded reply

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skwiddor
I've often wondered which websites might track all your keypresses and send
them with the submission so they keep a record of your typing, and display
only the final edit. Wouldn't be too hard to turn keypresses into _ed_
commands.

