Do you ever spend quite a bit of time writing a response to a post, and then once you're finished you look at it and go "What's the point?" then decide not to respond at all?

I've had that happen about 5 times tonight. I almost did that with this thread...

If you also have that happen, why do you cancel your post? What types of threads/posts were you responding to? Or was it just a mood thing?

nvm

I do this now and then. Usually its with a debate or some sort of argument, I write a whole bunch then once i'm done brain farting and read it over i start to realise that the debate is pointless and i'm not going to change anyones mind.

Often, I'm reading a thread & about to make a smart ass comment.
Then I stop & think "I think I'm funny, but will others agree?"
That's when I cancel the post.

All. The. Time.

And thank god because I say too much as it is.

lmao

And yep Braussie, that happens to me. i've tired of opinions, even my own.

i could go on, but why

Yet again, SV took the words out of my mouth.

Here's a few reasons I came up with:

If I have something else to do that requires my immediate attention(appointments/bathroom breaks/etc) I sometimes put a post on hold or cancel it completely rather than rushing something out quickly just to get it done.

If I write a reply/post and the forum eats it(forcing me to rewrite it) I sometimes decide to move on.

If i'm writing something to convince someone of a certain side of a debate/argument I sometimes rethink writing/posting it if I see that the people i'm trying to convince can't be convinced(or at least not so easily).And then you post it to The Drunk Thread instead, amIright? ;)

Haha, brilliant post.

And yes, I also do it all the time. I don't know why really but it's probably a mix between mood and the realization of discussing the topic at hand will only cause a flame war or uninteresting arguments that won't lead anywhere.

Yes. Most often when I'm considering engaging in a debate. And it's kinda nice to see others do as well!

I tend to wax passionate about things I care about, and so I will frequently find myself writing long, involved posts. Once upon a time I posted them every time I wrote them. However, over time I've learned that getting involved in those discussions, however interesting, taxes me mentally, as well as the fact that having reasonable discussions online is not always easy to do. :P

When I say that it taxes me, I mean... I'm the kind of person who cares a hell of a lot about others, and I have a very hard time when I think I might have offended someone or made them upset or dislike me. Things that the person on the other end of the conversation will not even notice may keep me awake at night. I'm slowly getting better (due largely to the fact that I've grown a lot more self-confident in the past year or so) but I still will reconsider a post if I think that it will only be detrimental to my wellbeing, and will not add much more to the thread than my own opinion — which has likely already been said better by somebody else, anyway.

And oh, look! I've just written a long response talking about how I often don't post my long responses. :P

Kudos. Reasonable weirdness is always interesting. :P

I also do this quite often. Mostly it's when I just feel the need to vent about something someone is saying. I write the post, read it, then hit cancel, often because it's not going to contribute anything worthwhile to the discussion, and simply writing it gave me the feeling of getting it off my chest.

And see — like I said in my post, someone usually says it more succinctly than me. I should've waited. :P

It's like writing someone a pissed-off letter/email, then deleting it. It doesn't hurt anyone, and it's good to say what you want to say even if only you end up hearing it.

I do this often. Way too many people here like debating for the sake of debating, not the idea at stake. You can't talk with people like that, there is no way to prove them wrong since they don't care about that, it's all about the argument, less about the actual topic.

It took a while to realize most people involved in arguments on the GOG forums are not able to ever admit to being wrong, even when presented with overwhelming evidence, so why bother with them? I've got better things to do with my time.

Yeah sometimes I'll do the "nvm", or maybe "cba".