It’s so weird. Not just these forums, but kind of any forum. It feels so Dead Internet Theory to me. It’s either that or the severe brain rot ADHD of people tabbing everything for no reason, despite having no interest or knowledge in the title, and then closing out.
Maybe they’re looking for buried treasure hidden within the bodies of posts, in spite of the titles… Maybe they hope that, one day, they open a thread titled “Need help with my calculus homework,” and SURPRISE, the thread body says, “CONGRATULATIONS, you just won a BILLION DOLLARS!!!”
I can’t speak for everyone, but I personally read all threads, even the ones I don’t think I’ll reply to.
This is mostly for 3 reasons:
1- Even with a title I don’t think I’ll reply to, there might still be parts of it I can reply to. Whether to give advice, give my opinion on or even just point to a different one that might have the answer the OP is looking for.
2- I like to know what people think overall. What their difficulties are. What their impressions of the game are. It gives me a larger overview of the game and the playerbase.
3- Many times titles are misleading or are referring only to a part of the issue being discussed.
There’s also a slight OCD component to it where I get a bit anxious to have an unread topic or a notification on top. I have to check those. It’s sort of a “completionist gamer” complex, even though I don’t see the forum even remotely as a game.
But this also happens with unread mail, text messages, etc. It’s one reason why I usually avoid community discussions.
But mostly it’s those 3. It’s a mixture of wanting to be helpful and being curious about the playerbase in general.
If I had to guess why that happens in a general sense, I would say that it’s because the vast majority of people will browse the forums only with the intent of checking information/trends/opinions and only a few actually having the intention of participating.
And also partially google searches pointing to that topic if the title seems relevant to the algorithm.
Haha, that’s funny. At work, I have like 1k+ unread emails. We get emails from the whole business, even when they 0% pertain to us at our department. So my coworkers in my building see that and are like REEE, FIX THAT! I say… “Why?!? If I clear it once, it now creates a chore I will have to maintain FOREVER. If I clear that out, I will then have to clear it out later today when it’s 1 new, 2 new, 50 new, 100 new. Or tomorrow when it’s 200+ new, and it will never end. All because I cleared it the one time! Whereas, if I don’t, then it’s just a thing that I am always ignoring passively!”
I don’t get that many emails, but when I do get emails I know aren’t relevant to me or my work, I just delete them. My inbox never has more than half a dozen emails.
I’d rather delete an email without reading it than just leaving it there unread.
Notifications do give me a sort of OCD. It’s one of the reasons I can never play those mobile games that have constant notifications (and some you can’t even turn off), or games like TLI or Undecember. They freak me out after a while and I get tired of it and stop playing.
I think many people just browse to see what others are discussing. Nothing wrong with that. It’s similar to browsing the subreddit to see what people are talking about, or watching a Twitch stream but not participating in the chat.
Hahah, that feels like I wrote everything you said myself. Even, and especially, the “completionist complex” thing… I cannot get around a single red dot indicating an unverified news of any kind… I have to check and address them, whatever they are.
And I’m also very curious about how different people perceive the things I usually put my time into… As well as willing to help whoever I can with some information, so I’m always checking the forums or reading video comments for the games I’m currently playing.
Yeah, that kinda shows. You are really one of the quickest responders ever. If someone quotes you, they shall be answered in a matter of seconds, unless you’re really not checking the forums
Oh god. So this is the reason I have it as part of my usual daily routine? There’s always the “checking and sorting the inbox” moment at some point, when I have nothing better to do. But I mostly never go to sleep with a cluttered email inbox
Anyways, I’m also like DJ when it comes to these forums. I read mostly all threads, even if I know I’ll not interact with them. For the same reasons he mentioned.
Even when I’m not heavily invested into a specific season, I like to check how everyone is doing and what I should expect from any changes I haven’t tried myself yet.
That is not just because of that, but also because I use 4 monitors and each has their purpose. One of them always has the browser open, which means that, unless I’m actively debugging a page, I just leave it open on the forum tab and I get notified when new threads show (I’m always on the “latest” category).
