Well, in THAT thread..............

[DuBois]

I don't know if this is just me, but I have noticed a mini-trend of people saying, 'I can't believe that the consensus is that it is rude to dance naked to bongo drums on a Tuesday afternoon. On a thread yesterday, everyone said that it was perfectly acceptable to tap dance in a neon tutu on Thursday mornings.'

The problem is, that, as in my example, a lot of the time the two situations bear a superficial resemblance to one another, but are not really all that similar, and certainly not identical. The other problem is that often, the 'consensus' on both threads has been arrived at by totally different posters anyway. Thoughts?

[Steve]

I think that, where some posters feel situations are very crucially different, other posters see more similarities.

[RingTailedLemur]

Gahr, I know you are referring to me.  I wish you had spoken to me privately, instead of calling me out.

If a poster feels that a discussion from another thread is pertinent, as indeed I did, then I don't see anything wrong with mentioning it.  Threads do not exist in a vacuum.  There would only be a problem if issues from other threads were brought up to provoke conflict, which was certainly not my intention.

[DuBois]

Gahr, I know you are referring to me.  I wish you had spoken to me privately, instead of calling me out.

If a poster feels that a discussion from another thread is pertinent, as indeed I did, then I don't see anything wrong with mentioning it.  Threads do not exist in a vacuum.  There would only be a problem if issues from other threads were brought up to provoke conflict, which was certainly not my intention.

Well, you were only the most recent example. As I say, I have seen it on other occasions, as well.

[kareng57]

But it's really not for you to declare how "similar" two situations can be.  It's all to do with perception.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with mentioning peoples' opinions from another thread.

[DuBois]

But it's really not for you to declare how "similar" two situations can be.  It's all to do with perception.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with mentioning peoples' opinions from another thread.

It always seems to me to have an element of 'gotcha', as in 'I can't believe you think that, when yesterday you said this' as I say, when it is often different posters' opinions anyway, which was my second point. People can have different opinions on similar topics, anyway.

[wyozozo]

I've done it when I've seen marked similarities.

[squeakers]

The problem with this is.. 25 people pronounce their opinions on subject A yesterday, last week, last year. 22 felt one way, 3 felt another. When something similar comes up.. maybe only 4 of those people are in the thread and 35 new people have a different opinion either way.  There can never be a consensus on anything that has variables or shades of grey.

[RingTailedLemur]

But it's really not for you to declare how "similar" two situations can be.  It's all to do with perception.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with mentioning peoples' opinions from another thread.

It always seems to me to have an element of 'gotcha', as in 'I can't believe you think that, when yesterday you said this' as I say, when it is often different posters' opinions anyway, which was my second point. People can have different opinions on similar topics, anyway.

I disagree that it is "always" the case.

[SiotehCat]

I don't know if I have ever done it, but I am curious about it also. Before it was mentioned in the other thread, I was wondering the same thing. The only difference that I could see is that one was fish and the other was cats.

So, if I had been the one to question it, it would have been because I was genuinely curious why there was a difference in opinion. 

[wyozozo]

The only major difference in the 2 threads I compared was adult and juvenile.

[DuBois]

I don't know if I have ever done it, but I am curious about it also. Before it was mentioned in the other thread, I was wondering the same thing. The only difference that I could see is that one was fish and the other was cats.

So, if I had been the one to question it, it would have been because I was genuinely curious why there was a difference in opinion.

I feel that I should clarify that this wasn't really inspired by that thread, and certainly not by any particular poster: my post was triggered by that thread, I admit, but I have seen it on and off for a while.

[Daffodil]

I posted this in that thread as well but unless I have missed something, in the fish tank thread there was nothing about getting rid of pets in the OP. Just getting rid of the .. pet holding apparatus (?). So I didn't understand why one thread was brought in to the other. I read the OP twice, but it's still possible I missed where there were already fish in the tank. It was my understanding that the tank was in storage.

[SiotehCat]

I posted this in that thread as well but unless I have missed something, in the fish tank thread there was nothing about getting rid of pets in the OP. Just getting rid of the .. pet holding apparatus (?). So I didn't understand why one thread was brought in to the other. I read the OP twice, but it's still possible I missed where there were already fish in the tank. It was my understanding that the tank was in storage.

Post 13 the OP mentions keeping some of the fish in a smaller fishtank.

[Surianne]

I'm 100% with you on this, Gahr.  Drives me absolutely crazy for all the reasons you mentioned. 

I used to try to point out the differences in threads, explain that different posters might be involved, or note that claims a poster is making (e.g., if they say a thread had a "consensus" when it clearly didn't) but I learned that goes absolutely nowhere. 

I'm trying harder to just completely ignore a post that begins with "Well, in this other thread, posters agreed..." because replying just makes it worse and turns the *new* thread into a debate about what was actually said in the previous thread.