It's a Misunderstanding
By katsmeow1213
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
United States
January 22, 2009 8:21am CST
Has anyone ever misunderstood something you said in a discussion?
I'm sure it's happened to each of us at least once.
It's happened to me a few times. I'll start a discussion and apparently I'm not clear enough about part of it, then I find myself responding to everyone trying to clear it up. I get annoyed that these people haven't read the other responses to see that I'm trying to clear it up! I know some people respond via e-mail, but others do not, so I'd wish they'd read at least a few of the responses so they can see what I meant.
Sometimes I wish there was a way to go back and edit your discussion, even after others are responding to it, so you can clear up the parts that others are misunderstanding.
4 people like this
16 responses
@GreenMoo (11833)
•
27 Jan 09
I'm probably one of those people who irritate you! I very rarely read through other people's responses prior to posting my own. I reply from email notifications, and the way the system is set up doesn't encourage you to look at the other responses until after you've posted your own.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
27 Jan 09
You could never irritate me! I understand these sorts of things from my friends, because I know you can't read the responses when responding through e-mail. It's those who respond who aren't on my friends that don't read the previous responses that drive me nuts.
@jesssp (2712)
• Canada
22 Jan 09
YES, I wish we could edit! Not only for clarification but to fix spelling and grammatical errors that slip through.
I started a discussion once about hops (like the vine) and only received one response that rambled on about hope. I find that a lot of people don't really read the discussion or the responses before they reply.
Another thing that leads to misunderstandings is sarcasm and being facetious because it often doesn't come across as intended. I have definitely had some responses fall flat because people didn't get my (attempt at) humour.
@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
22 Jan 09
I can also be very sarcastic too, but I haven't had a problem with that yet, I think it's because I've gotten used to making it obvious that I'm being sarcastic, or that I've learned to only do it around those who know me well enough.
@izathewzia (5134)
• Philippines
23 Jan 09
It is really annoying if people did not get what you are trying to say. That they misundersttod your response. But we can not avoid such kind of situation. Especially we have different rationalization.
@kilani123 (864)
• United Arab Emirates
23 Jan 09
Yeah specially when postig online like on forums , people always dont get u right
I hope they install an Edit feature here on mylot , that will help alot for sure
@jessi0887 (2788)
• United States
23 Jan 09
That has happened to me yesterday. I started a discussion and someone replied to it differently then what i was asking. So i explained to him thats not what i meant. I hope he didn't think i was going off on him.
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
22 Jan 09
I know exactly what you mean. I often wish that there was some way that what we posted we could then edit. Sometimes I am not clear either but sometimes it is because people do not read the post carefully and just make mistaken assumptions. I woulD love to edit my spelling as I miss the mistakes when reading before I post. And I taught english for many years! My fingers are a little arthritic and I hit the wrong keus and normally I am a brilliant speller!
BLESSINGS
BLESSINGS@katsmeow1213 (28716)
• United States
22 Jan 09
See, typos are fine by me. I'm used to seeing them and can usually understand what they mean. I make a few myself, plus I'm not the greatest speller so for tough words I probably misspell them a lot. I don't worry so much about that, unless it's important. I know once I misspelled a word in the title of my post and I really wished I could go back and change that!
@lingli_78 (12822)
• Australia
22 Jan 09
so far it never happens to me because i hardly post a discussion here... and if i do, i only post general discussions... nothing personal, religious or political... my discussions are pretty straight forward and hardly people can misunderstood them... but if i do make a discussion and then people misunderstood it, i will just create another similar discussion to clear it up... take care and have a nice day...
@explorations (1712)
• United States
22 Jan 09
This happened to me two days ago, and I was so tempted to jump back into the discussion to defend myself. I didn't, though, because I noticed the person who misunderstood me also gave me a negative rating. I worried that, if I tried to defend myself, my ratings would drop again. So, I just took what they had to say with a grain of salt and moved on. I'm hoping it doesn't happen again, though, because it really bothered me.
@mysdianait (66009)
• Italy
22 Jan 09
I have been misunderstood before now.
Sometimes on purpose and sometimes it was genuine 
@silverjam (969)
• United States
22 Jan 09
Yes I did the same too and I guess everybody has that experience of being misunderstood in the posts they were making. Well it's a good thing that you were still able to correct by explaining what you really meant in the preceeding posts you made for that one being misunderstood. I do the same if I find mine quite vague to others.
@dettedeguzman (85)
• Philippines
22 Jan 09
Hi. Don't be sad when people misunderstand you. We are using the most powerful means of communication here which is written communication. People who are confused can easily go back and reread what you have written. If they didn't get what you mean on the first time, I guess you need not worry. As long as you know in your heart that you have all the good intention and you are not hurting people, so be it.
Happy my lotting!
@soundfreak22nd (475)
• Malaysia
22 Jan 09
yup.i was wrote something i did not understand myself and one of the mylotters thought that i married my kindergarten teacher. haha. well, blame me for my english.
@CRIVAS (1815)
• Canada
22 Jan 09
I have had that happen, actually one guy got really mad at me because he misunderstood what I was trying to say. When I tried to clear things up, he was so mad he didn't want to listen to me. I think that you are right, I think that the best way to avoid confusion here is to read a few responses before you respond. I hope that you have an easier time on here now, hopefully people will take this discussion to heart and take the time to read a few responses from now on.
@aisaellis22 (6445)
• United States
22 Jan 09
Hello katsmeow1213! I only scanned all the responses when I don't understand clearly what the owner of the discussion means. Some of the members here misunderstood my discussion sometimes but I tried to clear it up to them so that their responses would make sense. Just today, I misunderstood one of the discussion I replied to. She is asking about the least favorite chore and I answer her my favorite chore, when I found out about it, it was too late I already submitted it, so I followed it up saying my least favorite..hehhee
@sunnykhona (69)
• India
22 Jan 09
yea ur right ...........we are human beings so we do some mistakes........n ther is only one way we have to kicked out our mistakes..........so all working so good n properly..........take care.
