Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?

[Scribe]

Not saying no point in the longer discussion, but as a rando who only has so much energy to contribute, is there a point after page 3?

Doubtful. Once the usual suspects are involved, 99% of the time you know where its going. There are 2 in particular that especially if they start engaging each other, its over, and power plants are brought online to render their text on the screen.

 

[Deset Gled]

Serious question, is it ever worth replying in a EnWorld thread once it’s gone past page 3 even if some people are still being wrong on the internet?

...

Posting after page 3, when threads devolve into entrenched positions, feels pretty pointless. Your super useful observations will no longer be read by anyone that isn’t already entrenched. And less prolific posters will just be helping prop up the dead horse or giving it another whack but to no real end.

I think you should consider what page of this thread you're on.

On the serious side, though, the answer is that it depends a lot on the thread and the posters. There are plenty of threads with good content over the long term. But the problem you describe is real, too.

IMNSHO, a well tailored ignore list helps a lot. The number of deeply entrenched posters, as you mention, is not as high as you might think when annoyed, and can sometimes be efficiently removed. Also, there are a couple of "cliques" on ENworld that are prone to taking over discussions about their pet topics. You sometimes only have to ignore one or two key ringleaders from the clique to effectively remove the group. Unfortunately, for some topics you just can't get rid of them short of making a + thread specifically designed to keep them out. And sometimes even that's not really possible.

 

[TiQuinn]

Serious question, is it ever worth replying in a EnWorld thread once it’s gone past page 3 even if some people are still being wrong on the internet?

I feel like, after page 3 randos no longer reading, no one cares about OP any more and the remaining discussion and readers are just sides of a discussion that will never resolve.

if you get in early with your incredibly useful observation or hot take, casuals will see it, maybe derive some benefit, and maybe helpfully shape the discussion prolific posters who will hash stuff out until the heat death of the universe will have until on pages 4-127.

Posting after page 3, when threads devolve into entrenched positions, feels pretty pointless. Your super useful observations will no longer be read by anyone that isn’t already entrenched. And less prolific posters will just be helping prop up the dead horse or giving it another whack but to no real end.

Not saying no point in the longer discussion, but as a rando who only has so much energy to contribute, is there a point after page 3?

Believe it or not, some folks actually have interesting takes and hashing it out a bit with them respectfully does provide a different perspective. There’s a few people who I’ve enjoyed debating with even though we don’t totally see eye to eye because at least they have POV on games that goes simply beyond “I hate XYZ.” Others, we enjoy the same thing but still manage to have different takeaways.

But yeah sometimes, you just get sucked into someone’s nonsense.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Posting after page 3, when threads devolve into entrenched positions, feels pretty pointless. Your super useful observations will no longer be read by anyone that isn’t already entrenched. And less prolific posters will just be helping prop up the dead horse or giving it another whack but to no real end.

Not saying no point in the longer discussion, but as a rando who only has so much energy to contribute, is there a point after page 3?

looks around...
I mean, us Pineapplers are already on page 726!

wait ... what am i doing with my life?
Ahem. No, I know what you're talking about. I think @Deset Gled makes some good points as well (as does @Scribe ).

Here's my take- yes, there are a few people who really like to argue.
And there are also certain groups that will enjoy discussing their favorite topic, regardless of the actual topic.

And that's what causes some of the long threads (and most of the thread locks). But I think that threads tend to drift after a while, and that's okay! I mean, there are some threads that provide a lot of good content for lots of pages, but those are relatively rare.

Usually, if you see a really long thread, it's always interesting to read the topic (or OP) and then drop into the last page and see what they are actually talking about now. It's like a game of telephone.

You may ask yourself, "I thought this thread was about 5e24's Barbarians..."
And you may ask yourself, "Why are people arguing about disintegrating wildshaped druids?"
And you may tell yourself, "Self, this is not my beautiful thread about barbarians."
And you may tell yourself, "Self, what does pawn stance have to do with disintegrated druids anyway?"
Same as it ever was, same as it ever was

 

[trappedslider]

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

sparkling menace.

BAND NAME!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Not saying no point in the longer discussion, but as a rando who only has so much energy to contribute, is there a point after page 3?

Depends on the thread. Depends on the rando.

 

[trappedslider]

oh you're back, so i will expect many walls of text since you seem to get paid by the word

 

[Scribe]

And with that, my good deed for the day is done. You are welcome.

 

[Maxperson]

The unabomber had been right about everything! Well… not everything. The unabomber stuff he had gotten wrong. But that stuff about the Industrial Revolution had been right on the money.

Back in the distant past my uncle taught English classes at UC Berkeley. One day he was in an auditorium speaking with a couple of his students and one of them said something kind of crazy, so my uncle responded, "Yeah, right! And I'm the unabomber!"

The next day the FBI showed up at his place. The first thing out of their mouth was, "We know you aren't the unabomber, but we got a report that you might be and we are required to check all received tips." Then they talked to him for a while and he let them look around his place.

The two students were two that wouldn't have reported him for that joke, so he was convinced that the auditorium was bugged. It was also used by many California politicians for speeches and events.