Ask HN: Do you write comments, and then not submit them? | Hacker News Reader

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

61 pointswooby50 comments

I find myself writing comments, looking them over, and then not submitting them pretty often. A friend of mine is the same way.

I'm just curious how common this is.

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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.

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.)

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.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_Duck_Debugging

I do the same. Also, I only join forums using my real name these days.

Yeah I found that helped me be a bit more mature on online forums. In high school I would use pseudo-anonymous screen names, which perhaps allowed me to say things I wouldn't really want attributed to my real name, even though it was still trivial to link it to my real name. Now I just use my initials + last name, which is a good reminder that you're definitely not really anonymous on the internet.

I saw the question and wanted to answer something along these lines. So I opened the link and saw that I have nothing to add other than "+1". Now I'm thinking if there's a point in submitting this comment. Oh well, once in a while I'll submit what I decided not to submit. Do I make sense at all?

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

Made a poll of this question for that reason:

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

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".

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.

There's no need to let long comments disappear into the ether. I usually mention mine on Twitter. You can also submit them as articles.

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 :)

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

> 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 :)

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.

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.

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

http://news.ycombinator.com/newpoll

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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 ;)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Most of the time, yes.

Yes.

yes

  # withholding long-winded reply

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.

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