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I check a member's other posts when they have a small number of posts & I suspect spam/scam.
Or else I want to get better sense of what the person means by the post I found,
so I check a few other posts they've made for pattern/context/gestalt theme.
I've never understood this behavior either. I'm not invested in anyone or anything in this forum enough to go through somebody's post for a contradicting statement to try to make them eat their words. The only time I've done that is if the person I'm engaging with has a chip on their shoulder against me and was continually calling me out for whatever reason. Other than that, I don't get too caught up in C-D. I actually have a life.
I bounce around forums all over the net on any subject you could possibly think of when I have a minute. There are a few things common to every forum and I was just thinking about this one behavior. There are always users who seem to look for another user's previous threads/replies before addressing the current one, often even referencing the other ones to make a point or shape their (or another's) opinion of the current one.
For those of you who do that, why?
When I'm on a forum and reading a thread, I don't really pay attention to the users, just what they're saying in that thread and also to make sure if I'm replying to them that it's the right person. Beyond that, the thread is like Vegas. What happens there stays there. I don't even remember the people in it when I jump to another one because their identity doesn't seem as important to me as what they're saying.
I've never felt compelled to go look through a users posting history with the exception of twice. Once was because I had a stalker who kept following me from thread to thread and I went to their history to snapshot it to prove it. Another was when someone specifically said to refer to their other posts about the subject so I went to go look for them and then stopped because I lose interest quickly lol.
Beyond that, I don't feel like I need to know what you've said in the past (or even to know anything about you) to discuss the topic at hand presently. An idea is an idea. Even if the subject is you, I still don't feel like I need to go hunting for a back story outside of the thread we're in now. You'll give it to me if you want.
So it always strikes me as odd when someone say starts a thread titled, "Is it amoral to kill insects?" and another user hops in and says something like, "Judging from some of your other posts, I'd say you don't care about morality *links to other posts*" or "I don't get why you're asking about this when your other posts say that you live somewhere there aren't any insects!"
Even if someone is lying about something or contradicted something they said before, why does it really matter if the topic isn't about them anyway but about a concept? It's like starting a thread about interesting things in the Bible and someone pointing out that you mentioned being agnostic in another thread. And?
Do you do it to discredit the person's thread or thoughts, to force their thread to be considered only in a particular context, just to be thorough, or maybe you just happen to remember the user saying something related and felt it would be useful to bring it up? I don't feel any which way about it, I just think it's an interesting habit that kind of relates to people generally not separating thoughts from the people who have them so I was curious about the motivation behind it.
And what is your motivation? Why are you psychoanalyzing those posters when according to your own rules you don't pay attention to the users but only about what is being said in that post?
If someone explodes at me for a post I made, I'll likely check his/her other posts. If that's typical behavior, I will brush it off. If it's uncommon, then I could conclude I must've struck a nerve.
Im not interested in trawling through posts , so that I can pick on someone, or contradict them... but its been done with me on here quite a few times with the same poster. who delights in thinking HE is right, and bullies for an answer if ignored... Ive totally gave up on him and his insistance with other posters, I leave MR RIGHT to think hes just that......
Cyberphonics, I wasn't able to rep you, but I love that you've brought up this subject. It's bothered me for some time now, after seeing it done to others, but now that it recently happened to me, I have to speak up about the matter. It makes me feel stalked, for sure. It's creepy for another thing. I think those in the habit of posting like that need to seriously get a life! And I think it's pathetic because it shows that they can't come up with anything more useful or pertinent to the current thread. And it's just despicable of them to dig for stuff in posting history that is neither here nor there to use to try to discredit the poster. Losers. And yeah, it's an internet bully technique when they have nothing better. E-drama.
So, you never remember who someone is? Other people do notice a pattern in their fellow posters. It is especially noticeable when a particular poster is always obnoxious.
Like, hey, exactly like you noticed that an obnoxious poster was following you around.
Honestly, there are thousands of threads and posts and so many users on here altogether that keeping track is no small feat.
Oh, I get it - maybe that's their motivation - they want to show off how good their memory is!
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