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Gettin' all Herodotean up in here!
Posted by: dazarobbo
When you open a topic, can you see all of the posts within it on the screen? No, because the space to display posts is limited by both your hardware (monitor size) and the site (paging). In that sense, I would rather have as many different viewpoints on my screen at the one time than to have to wade through multiple pages of people making no new contributions. That seems like a gross over-exaggeration of how often people quote without adding anything.
Of course it doesn't, but is it fair that their new/substantial/different contribution to the topic is lost amongst empty quotes of other posts that have already been presented? In fact, here's a good exercise: go to this topic and identify (roughly) how many responses there are to the OP's question/the topic, how many are not, then get an idea of how much space the latter take up which the former could be occupying. Is that idea not a better way to have a discussion structured? I feel like that's a poor example, for two reasons. First, Urk (generally) makes snide or cutting comments that people love to quote because the quotes are funny and people think that they have funny things they can tack on to his zippy one-liners (usually they aren't funny, but that's beside the point). So really a better argument would be that nobody's allowed to quote Urk. I can't think of a single other user who types fewer words and gets quoted more often than Urk does. Second, that thread isn't a thread which really fosters discussion anyway. All the OP wants is a simple "ME!" There's no disagreements or differences of opinion even allowed if you're following forum rules properly. If you post "I don't," in that thread, it qualifies as spam (if you're following the rules to the letter) because the OP isn't asking who doesn't have the Haunted helmet, he's just asking who does.
Yes, you are most welcome to participate, but why am I - the reader of the topic - going to bother reading what you've written if it's similar to or exactly the same as what someone else has written (which I've probably already read)? If you really wanted to further the discussion, you would - and should IMO - post a different viewpoint. I think that this hits the nail of this thread on the head. Is it enough to simply be involved in a discussion, as an assenting opinion in the camp of someone more articulate? Or do we actually have to articulate things that move discussion forward? That could be tough for some people. Do we exclude them from the discussion because of that?
Now, speaking conceptually here, if you still want to participate, why does your participation need to take the form of a post? CAVX made the point that in a real-life discussion, when someone makes expresses a point of view that others agree with, they will say "I agree" or something equivalent. So why do those "I agree"s need to be expressed as a post amongst the different opinions being discussed? I would say that it's a matter of convenience at this point. As I said before, a quote-post is tantamount to a nod of agreement. Obviously we all want the agency to voice said agreement; it's an important part of discussion, and knowing that people agree with you, even silently, can mean the difference between giving up an argument and winning it.
The problem, however, is that the only real vehicle we have to voice said agreement, at this point, is a post. So ostensibly what you're suggesting is that we no longer voice our assent. I completely understand. Hell, I agree. These posts are annoying clutter that inject no new knowledge or ideas into the discussions they're in. But, for the time being, at least, I feel they're an important part of discussion because they're the only thing we have to publicly show our agreement. Our participation needs to take the form of a post because how else are we supposed to participate? If I don't post, nobody will even know I'm there, never mind that I'm paying attention. It's a cumbersome, convoluted way to go about it, don't get me wrong. But it is what it is. Until we have a better way to show we agree, we have to be able to do it this way.
"Thumbs up" button, anyone?