Vladimir_Nesov comments on Open Thread: September 2009 - Less Wrong

2 Post author: AllanCrossman 01 September 2009 10:54AM

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Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 11 September 2009 08:46:50PM 0 points [-]

Not answering a question is Internet's way of walking away from a conversation. You don't usually say "excuse me, I'm late to a meeting", as interaction is asynchronous. In the current Internet culture, saying "I don't want to bother answering" sounds rude, and so the best solution signaling-wise is to just not answer.

Comment author: kpreid 11 September 2009 09:33:07PM *  3 points [-]

In my experience (for myself and interacting with others), it's not uncommon at all for someone to

  • miss that there was a question at all
  • see a question, but put off thinking about it and then forget to get back to it
  • reply to some other part and forget about answering the question
  • figure replying to the question is uninteresting 'because the thread is dead'

etc.