To ask if there’s a case to be made for MNHQ telling people to RTFT

[IvanaPee]

Hear me out!

More and more lately there seems to be a huge amount of posters who don’t RTFT and who don’t even read the OP’s posts.

This irritates the fuck out of me I won’t lie.

But worse, it happens on sensitive threads.

Just the other day there was a surge of posters who couldn’t be arsed reading a thread about the OP’s childhood abuse.

Today, I’ve read a thread where posters were offering answers to the OP two days after the whole thing had been resolved.

It’s asked on here every now and again why people don’t RTFT and there are always shouts of “it’s too long” or “I’m answering the question asked in the OP”.

Well, if it’s too long to read why post?

And pages and pages after the OP people don’t think there’s the slightest possibility that a thread has moved on??

The whole MNHQ thing stepping in is no doubt ridiculous but ugh, I wish there was a rule where you’re not allowed to post without bloody well reading!!!

To me it seems so disrespectful to the OP.

And the people who announce that they haven’t read it, then plough in anyway as though announcing it has justified it!

I can’t be the only one who thinks this should fucking stop! Can I??

Honestly I can’t always be arsed RTFT and when I have read full threads in the past I’ve looked at the clock and realised it’s taken me 15 minutes to trawl through it all!

I tend to skim read the first couple of pages then read the last couple before I post.

53rd, I remember it. That poor woman. It was just awful.

@outpinked but that’s at least enough to give you an idea of what’s gone on.

Haven't read the thread, but if you're expecting MN to police every single post, you're going to be disappointed.

The placement of this post ten minutes after, and immediately after, OP’s post (again) covering precisely this point, is pretty perfect.

I often don't RTFT, but skip to the end to see where a conversation ahs got to. If an innocuous OP has after 200 posts reached the point of 'So sorry OP', 'glad you've kicked him out' etc, then it's usually a pretty good sign that any further input isn't relevant!

Exactly, thecats!

@Sparklingbrook

The 'wahmbulance' is just a euphemism. You call an ambulance for someone injured, but a 'wahmbulance' for someone being a drama queen.

I disagree. I am not going to read this whole thread for instance. Why would I? It would be a waste of my time but I can still say I disagree with the OP.
Also, it may irritate you when people don't read the whole thread. You may do things that irritate others but this is just a forum. People just use it for entertainment when they have a spare few moments. You don't need to have a spare couple of hours to use it.

To summarise @Breakers: ‘my entertainment is way more important than others’ overall enjoyment of or support from the forum, and part of my enjoyment is making sure people know what I think regardless of context or whether relevance.’

?

I mean, fair play to you if you’re that open about it. At least you’re not pretending to have an interest in other people.

That’s all well and good @Breaker but then posters like you should just avoid the serious/sensitive/advice-seeking threads.

Yet somehow those threads seem to attract an inordinate amount of you.

There is a case for mumsnet implementing an easy way (and its not scrolling through to try and find the colour) to just read the OP posts. Enabling everyone to quickly see all the relevant information when it relates to them

Others I agree it helps to read through when it is a discussion

Would this be a good time to point out that the ‘F’ in RTFT does not traditionally stand for ‘full’?

In other words: nobody is telling you to read every single post by everyone. People are suggesting that you should pay SOME attention to the thread before throwing in your no doubt immensely valuable contribution.

Thanks Folf I thought it was something to do with an ambulance, but it was mentioned along with the 'thread police' so a bit baffled. Not heard the expression before.

I don't think any ambulances are required TBF.

while we're getting tips on how to customise things (thanks!) can someone tell me how to find my post on the "threads I'm on" without whizzing through and looking for it? Am i missing something?

Jassy - why be so rude to someone you don't know and who hasn't been rude to you or anyone else?

Honestly, @Breakers Jassy wasn't particularly rude (no swearing or abusive names, so tame in Mumsnet terms). All she did was respond forthrightly to your somewhat goady post, as did the OP.

You should surely have expected some strong replies as there are posters who clearly feel strongly about this issue.

Breakers even from the OP you can see that part of the concern is about recent threads where those who have not RTFT have been incredibly insensitive to those dealing with child sexual abuse.

So your response about it all being about the entertainment for you, and not wasting your life reading any further posts does risk getting a pretty unsympathetic reply, don’t you think?

It’s fine to use MN as entertainment and fire off your response to an OP without wasting another minute of your time , but maybe stick to Style and Beauty, Recipes and Parking threads, maybe.

Jassy - why be so rude to someone you don't know and who hasn't been rude to you or anyone else?

I thought I was accurately summarising your explanation of why you don’t bother to read threads before posting. You made clear that your interaction with others on the site was all about you, your enjoyment and your entertainment. Which is rude, really, particularly when many people use the site for more than entertainment, but as a source of information and support in difficult times.

I could have written this myself!

Irritates the hell out of me. Especially people offering solutions that are clearly already mentioned as not possible in original post.

I’ve really often wanted an option to filter all replies and simply see op posts including updates.

I know you can scroll and the updates from op are in green (except when nc part way through a thread - never understood that) but sometimes in busy multipage thread that can be ‘clunky’

I have also sometimes replied and in the meantime op updates which would have changed my reply had I read it. I try to acknowledge this but not always.

No, who the hell would want to read all 10 pages? I bet you all are reading it on tiny screens of mobile phones killing your eyes too - and that is very unreasonable to expect others to do. If someone wants to read the full thread (and I hate these acronyms) they will.

People who are actually interested in the topic might want to read the whole thread. If you don’t, fine - but why do you think your opinion is so important that you just HAVE to express it regardless of what follow-up info there might be?

I saw someone the other week use ‘Haven’t RTFT but...’ on the second page. Seriously, two pages is too many?! What happened to attention spans?

stillcoughingandlaughing your name was so long (Apols for lack of caps) that I didn’t have time to read your post fully but wanted to say have you considered a spa day?

I booked one, but had to cancel the cheque as I couldn’t afford it. I’m now taking in ironing.