How long to prepare your average post or topic?

I'm just curious about how quick most people are in preparing their posts and topics (thinking through and the writing process until you post).

I'm slow and so sometimes a topic or post might take me an hour or hours to think through or compose (not the best use of my time). It's rare that I can put one together in less than five minutes, and sometimes I spend longer in the editing process to sort out some of the mess. Usually I am very unhappy with the results, and I'm often at my worst the longer my post end up being (end up rambling in a confused manner often)

At a past forum I belonged to we had a chat application that required speed to still be relevant, which was good typing practice and to be quick-witted, but I am mentally much less nimble and much more sluggish now.

Some people I see can post ten or more posts in ten minutes, but I just always have more ideas and associations that I want to express, and I don't express myself well.

Sometimes I am quick, and I used to be able to pull things off that added to discussion much faster.

Now this one took me about eight minutes from conception to posting it, but now I edit to add that some require more research, fact-checking, and thinking-through than others.

Edited by Logan - January 05 2021 at 16:56

I like that. I overthink things and always doubt myself. I am often in a state of a sort of cognitive dissonance which makes things harder, and then deciding which path will I follow, and then regretting the approach. Also my mind is just always associating, so I have to force myself to shut up. Now this post was pretty instantaneous.

This stuff is more a hobby for me, so creating Topics I don't do much, I've been on too many music forums creating Topics in the past. Now, I am more of a reactionary poster and depending on the topic its either milliseconds or several minutes to post.

It can be as quick as two minutes if I'm just voting and briefly commenting in a poll, but it can be as long as four hours or more if I'm writing a long song titles intro for a new thread. The longest intro I ever wrote was for The  Dark Side of the Moon, which took around eight hours in total, including compiling all of Pink Floyd's songs together, and then writing, editing & highlighting all of the songs. I needed a long lie down in a darkened room after that mammoth effort. 

Logan wrote: I'm just curious about how quick most people are in preparing their posts and topics (thinking through and the writing process until you post). I'm slow and so sometimes a topic or post might take me an hour or hours to think through or compose (not the best use of my time). It's rare that I can put one together in less than five minutes, and sometimes I spend longer in the editing process to sort out some of the mess. Usually I am very unhappy with the results, and I'm often at my worst the longer my post end up being (end up rambling in a confused manner often) At a past forum I belonged to we had a chat application that required speed to still be relevant, which was good typing practice and to be quick-witted, but I am mentally much less nimble and much more sluggish now. Some people I see can post ten or more posts in ten minutes, but I just always have more ideas and associations that I want to express, and I don't express myself well. Sometimes I am quick, and I used to be able to pull things off that added to discussion much faster. Now this one took me about eight minutes from conception to posting it, but now I edit to add that some require more research, fact-checking, and thinking-through than others.

Logan wrote: I'm just curious about how quick most people are in preparing their posts and topics (thinking through and the writing process until you post). I'm slow and so sometimes a topic or post might take me an hour or hours to think through or compose (not the best use of my time). It's rare that I can put one together in less than five minutes, and sometimes I spend longer in the editing process to sort out some of the mess. Usually I am very unhappy with the results, and I'm often at my worst the longer my post end up being (end up rambling in a confused manner often) At a past forum I belonged to we had a chat application that required speed to still be relevant, which was good typing practice and to be quick-witted, but I am mentally much less nimble and much more sluggish now. Some people I see can post ten or more posts in ten minutes, but I just always have more ideas and associations that I want to express, and I don't express myself well. Sometimes I am quick, and I used to be able to pull things off that added to discussion much faster. Now this one took me about eight minutes from conception to posting it, but now I edit to add that some require more research, fact-checking, and thinking-through than others.

^ I can relate to that. Though the other night it was about 3 am and my wife was asking me to come to bed, and I was like no, I only have 10 more levels to complete in Zelda’s Trial of the Sword. I have my priorities.

I think I implied or overstated that I spend more time writing and thinking through posts than I do. I have written lots of stream of consciousness stuff (I quite often do it on my phone). Those hour plus ones are rare, but most are over five minutes from when I think I’m going to post something until I actually post (this may include logging-in). One like this is clocking in at two minutes so far, but it feels much longer. Also, in long posts, I include break times and doing other things in between and any later editing. Often I don’t bother to read my own posts until much later if at all.

Some people are incredibly fast and prolific, but then those tend to be very short posts. I post the longest when I haven’t slept for long periods of time, and I have chronic insomnia, which might add to any apparent neuroses. With work I get lots done when I sleep little and fuel myself on Coca Cola, but with just forum posting I try to stay away from my coke habit.

Forums were often a way for me to get my ya-yas out and let my hair down and exorcise any stress when taking breaks from work, which involves very precise formal writing and actual thought. Frequent showers work better to get those juices following, to relax, and re-focus.

Edited by Logan - January 06 2021 at 04:06

^ This is a bit how I see it: impulsive, and generally humourous posts in the just for fun section. in the other sections I try to be more constructive. But, some seem to privilege quantity over quality, especially in the polls section where arbitrary and binary options seem to be in vogue at the moment (well, I say that because I don't have much history with the forum...). Is it me getting old and not liking the nowadays facebook/twitter strategies imposing binary thought? (Like/unlike, for or against, this or that...).