Do you write entire responses and then change your mind?

I can relate to that, lecanis! rather it's typically me:-) I try to make my response relevant, helpful and to the point so I have a habit of rereading my response as well as original post, before I submit, to see if I have maintained relevance. Some times after rereading OP, I find that my response has gone astray, so I'll delete to start over again. Some times it happens even before I reread OP i.e. after rereading my own response and finding it confusing, incomprehensible or too difficult, to understand or grasp, to be of any use for readers. Some times after rereading I find that it is too heavy on just one aspect than on the whole point, thus loosing gravity and meaningfulness or balance. I'll delete and abort If I can't balance it or I'll keep but with heavy editing to make it balanced. Many a time, I wanted to admonish people for their negativity, malice, disrespect and name calling. I would write a long comment but will abort later, feeling that it may create even more verbal violence, hence loosing purpose. Out of many of these times I only actually posted my comment just 2 or 3 times. Sometimes it's because, just like you, I don't think a discussion is worth my participation. Some times, while typing, I get bored in between:-) So I delete and will not actually respond. Most of the time though, I may not delete the whole response/comment but I do such a heavy editing that it can actually be considered deleted because after editing it is much different than the original response. I change many words and phrases. I am not always confident about my use of a word. Though I consult dictionary very often but still sometimes common meaning/connotation of a word as perceived by native speakers is much different than dictionary definition. e.g there is a noun and a verb in French, "baiser", which linguistically mean "kiss" or "to kiss" but it's common/regular/popular meaning is very vulgar and I got myself embarrassed over it when I was learning French. I believe and know that there are such words in Eglish too. I never would like to offend any body. So I always try to change my words to most proper ones and often end up doing it with many words and phrases. I just realized that it is one of the reasons I read other's discussions too much, to know how other people use words in their discussions. Funny part...5 or 6 times this deletion part was done by mylot for me:-) earlier I was in a habit of selecting a word and dragging it to other place while editing my response after writing. It was possible even if one havn't had reached 500 mark. one day a person posted about this facility and mylot restricted this one too. But out of my habit, I still some time do it unintentionally and to my utter frustration, the whole response get deleted. but It gives me a good laugh afterward when I think about it. Sorry for being too long again, but I can't help my habit of explaining my point :-)

Very rarely, though I did change my mind sometimes when responding to sensitive topics or people. Usually, I will just dump my thoughts then let go (lol). It's only 2 cents and most topics are of very impersonal nature that requires a more "technical" than human answer. So I don't really bother that much. And what's this talk about being elitist? The money you have been counting got into your brain? :P

I'd done this as well for various reasons. Some times because I think it's worded wrong and might not be very clear so I'll just redo it. Then there are the times when I read through it and think the wording is such that it could cause a fight even though that is not what I intend (yes there are times I have meant to start one :)). Then like you there are some I'll write it out and it just doesn't really seem to be adding to the discussion or that it really doesn't do justice to what I can write. So you are not alone at all and judging from the responses we are in some good company :)

Lecanis, I do it all of the time. Mostly from me I am afraid what I have written sounds crass and argumentative. I know you have seen first hand the holes I can dig for myself. So I will delete the whole thing and try to rethink what I am writing, most of the time I can not say it in a better way so I have to leave it alone. There are a few things that catch my eye, and my hands start flying over the keyboard, and I hit that submit when I should have deleted but alas I did not and the battle begins.

Yeah, it has happened to me on more than a couple occasions and for the exact reasons that you have described. A topic on religion had seemed to go awry with people indulging in slugfests, and I really felt bad about it and typed away a huge post, only to delete it as I felt that it would add fuel to the fire. Sometimes, the best thing that one can do to a discussion gone awry is just to allow it to die down. By posting a reply, we inadvertently give it a second life, as it again starts showing up on the recent discussions tab. Ignoring such discussions would mean that they just get buried under other discussions. Let sleeping dogs lie, huh? Whatsay?

Dear Friend, As far as i believe you don't have the confidence to tell your ideas to others. you fear that ur idea will look like a mess to others. Don't think like that. BE Confident about ur self. Thanks

Yes, I do it all the time now for the same reasons as you do. I didn't care that much when I first started on mylot, because I felt so anonymous here, but now that I know a few people here, I feel less comfortable spouting off whatever comes into my head. I'm a regular on another board that has an edit feature, and I've gotten used to being able to delete ill-conceived responses or fix typos after hitting "post". I hate seeing some of my old, careless posts at mylot come to the front again.

itz nothing.all the people here just working for money.it does not matter that any response change and make mind.

this also happens to me, same with the discussions that i want to start. there are times when i type words coming from my mind without understanding it. then when i try to re-read it, i find it as nonsense or out of the topic so i just delete it. there are times also when i feel that my response is offensive to the thread starter. so i'd end up going back to previous page and not replying to the thread anymore.

I did that a couple of times, well I didn't delete the whole thing just parts. Anyway, I no longer do it b/c I realized all the time it was costing me to take out and put in. So, I just go with my original response in order to not end up wasting valuable time.

i have also done this, but i think my problem is that i dont like how i have stated the comment and i cant find the words that i really want to use, so i fear that it might so dumb to someone. I have though not done this as much recently as i did when i first came to mylot. If i have taken the time to comment on something wether i think it sounds good or not i go ahead and post it most times lol. what i think sounds dunb to me may not to someone else lol but yeah i have definitly have done that and then you think of the time you just wasted responding only to delete.

well i respond only to the selected discussions which i find to be really worth participation... but i make up my mind very fast wat i am going to write... n i have never deleted the whole post after just completing it n later realise that i dont require to post it... i just type out my feelings n just submit it... well i dont think u shud put so much stress on urself just to submit the posts at discussions... u c we r all frenz n we are just sharing our view on a topic here... so we appreciate all our fenz' posts n we never overlook any post... so plz dont feel that no one cares bout ur views...cheer up n dont be shy...Goodluck!!

Yes I do all the time, and most of the time I gauge what the reaction of the other people will be. I do this all the time because I do not want to effend anyone. I try to be as diplomatic as I could because I don't want to get into a serious online scuffle over something that I would normally would ignore in real life.

I just joined this site so I havent done it here yet but there are times on other message boards where i've done exactly that. It do totally annoy myself when I do that. I need to learn to just say what I think.

i seldom do this... i usually just change some parts of my wording to the discussion that I wanted to respond to... but i hardly delete the whole thing... before i type my respond, i usually read the post very carefully first and decide whether i want to respond to it or not... if i decided to respond to it, then i will start typing and i won't delete it again... if not, then i won't reply at all... :-)

I have never deleted an answer on purpose. I have changed it somewhat or added new ideas. I am not too worried about offending someone, because that is never my intention. Once in a while, my answers will not say anything new and like you several topics are foreign territory to me, such as I don't have much of a clue. But I do not think you are any shier than me.

I do that all the time. Write out long responces then decide I don't want to make someone mad or I'm not totally sure on what I'm saying and don't want to look stupid if I'm wrong.

yes, I have done this plenty of times, then I laugh at myself. Sometimes, I even change my mind and want to say the opposite of what I said in the first place.=)

Hello,lecanis,it happens to me occassionally,when i am replying to the discussions,i will always try to type something constructive,sometimes,after i finished typing the whole response,i find out that my reply is not good enough and i will delete the whole thing and reconstruct it again before i submit to it.

Oh yeah... writing something and then deleting the whole thing after going through it thinking it is not good is one thing. But planning every word of your response and then when it reaches for about a page accidentally deleting it is another thing!! The latter has happened to me umpteen times and not being able to have enough patience to retype the whole thing, I have just given a short response and backed over, thinking maybe this is how God wanted me to end it(That makes it look better though)!! It is funny when I think of it now but it actually makes me look like the idiot when it happens. And the worst problem is I cannot type it in a word document and then copy/paste it if I had a problem because I still haven't done my first 100 posts!! I sincerely don't understand what the number of posts has to do with copy/paste something. Grrrr.