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Preferred etiquette about replies to oneself Topic is solved

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Mæstro
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Preferred etiquette about replies to oneself

Post by Mæstro » 2026-01-30, 14:37

Traditionally, I had learnt in a message board to avoid what i learnt to call ‘double posting’, or rather, replying within a given thread before somebody else has replied, such that one’s own messages appear twice in a row. Among the reasons for avoiding this which I recall is avoiding inflating post count. A few times, when I have thought of something else relevant to the thread but not directly related to what I ad last left in the thread, I have edited to combine my additional comment with the old one, using quote blocks and ordering, or else [hr], to separate subjects. This agrees with my tendency, despite making frequent use of the preview button, of editing my message after I have posted it up to a few times, to add additional thoughts, rephrase for clarity etc.

Nevertheless, it has occurred to me that this method would fail if the editing period expires before I have thought of my additional material. Because community core members like Night Wing have done what I would call double posting, I am left to believe that replying just after one’s own post like this is accepted. The site rule uses ‘double post’ otherwise than I am used to, to mean making redundant posts. Is the usage I had learnt non-standard? Is what I had learnt to call double posting permitted here under the conditions I described?
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Re: Preferred etiquette about replies to oneself

Post by Night Wing » 2026-01-30, 15:48

Mæstro wrote:
2026-01-30, 14:37


Nevertheless, it has occurred to me that this method would fail if the editing period expires before I have thought of my additional material. Because community core members like Night Wing have done what I would call double posting, I am left to believe that replying just after one’s own post like this is accepted.
Off-topic:
If you do not like what I am doing for the last 14 years and counting on this site, then put my username on your Foe list and I "am" going to do the same for you on my Foe list. This way you won't see my posts anymore and I won't see your's either. And lastly, you (and I) will not be able to send a private message to each other.

Edit: Foe list, done.
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Re: Preferred etiquette about replies to oneself

Post by Mæstro » 2026-01-30, 15:58

Night Wing wrote:
2026-01-30, 15:48
If you do not like what I am doing for the last 14 years and counting on this site, then put my username on your Foe list and I "am" going to do the same for you on my Foe list. This way you won't see my posts anymore and I won't see your's either. And lastly, you (and I) will not be able to send a private message to each other.
Edit: Foe list, done.
Sorry! I was not condemning your practise. If anything, I have been willing to adopt it myself. Here is how I could paraphrase what I wrote:
Long ago, I was taught to avoid doing such-and-such on a message board. A respected user here does such-and-such, and the site rule which I thought was about such-and-such is actually about something else unrelated. I can appreciate cases where doing such-and-such might be appropriate. Is doing such-and-such alright here after all?
Social rules like this are not obvious for me, in a way which directly follows from my disability, so asking explicitly when in doubt is the best way to clear away any misunderstandings.
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Re: Preferred etiquette about replies to oneself

Post by Moonchild » 2026-01-30, 16:04

As far as I know, "double posting" has always meant making copies of posts to place in multiple threads or boards. And that's coming from my rather extensive background in on-line communications, from running a BBS in the '90s all the way to now.

Replying to yourself to clarify or add information or finding some solution to your own issue or answer to your own question is never a problem. "Inflating post counts" as a result isn't really an issue either unless you are starting to use forum threads as a white board or monologue chat with post after post and that is of course frowned upon (because that would be egregious; a forum isn't for those kinds of unfiltered streams of consciousness to be posted one after another).
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Re: Preferred etiquette about replies to oneself

Post by Mæstro » 2026-01-30, 16:19

Moonchild wrote:
2026-01-30, 16:04
As far as I know, "double posting" has always meant making copies of posts to place in multiple threads or boards. And that's coming from my rather extensive background in on-line communications, from running a BBS in the '90s all the way to now.
Thank you! Then the usage I had been taught is non-standard after all, and I will abandon it.
Replying to yourself to clarify or add information or finding some solution to your own issue or answer to your own question is never a problem.
Thank you, this answers my main question. It is good to know this is indeed proper.
a forum isn't for those kinds of unfiltered streams of consciousness to be posted one after another).
Right, that would belong on a blog. Blogs and fora have always struck me as somehow related in this way. I remember discovering Blogspot and phpBB software about the same time as a child, sometime about 2005–09, and thinking that they were somehow related. I seem to recall a website with a pale green, ghost-like creature with a large mouth and kinky hairs as a logo which offered both, possibly Blogspot itself.
As an aside, if Night Wing should keep me on his blacklist for more than a day or two, I would appreciate if someone could send him my regrets. We had always got along well and liked each other’s posts, as far as I could tell, and I would hate for it to be spoilt over a misunderstanding when I was mentioning him as a role model for good behaviour. I did not mean my message as an attack. :(
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Re: Preferred etiquette about replies to oneself

Post by Gemmaugr » 2026-01-30, 18:26

I will agree with Maestro here. I've been online since the 90's (28k modems), and double-posting usually meant posting twice or more in a row.

I also tend to think of relevant things later, but mostly edit my replies for spelling reasons or add missing words that didn't catch up with my typing.

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Re: Preferred etiquette about replies to oneself

Post by Moonchild » 2026-01-30, 20:52

Well I don't know where this rift in terminology comes from, but the rules on this forum are literally just about causing repeat posts or topics that are essentially dealing with the exact same issue/question/remark, or spreading the same posts in multiple locations to "get more attention to it". It's not about rapid-fire posting in the same thread. And as such, there's no worry about adding clarifying posts to the thread you posted in when the editing window has lapsed.
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Re: Preferred etiquette about replies to oneself

Post by Lucio Chiappetti » 2026-01-30, 21:35

What I like of this forum is that it has a regulation made of few, sensible rules (and sensible participants). Let' keep it as it is !

There other forums where they are much more picky with rules like "posting in the right subforum", "not posting twice consecutively in same thread but edit previous post" (which is prone to misunderstanding), or "tag a solved issue with [solved} in lowercase letter before the subject"
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. (G.B. Shaw)