Hello,
I guess this one is more for the forum administrators as well, maybe the interface can be improved with this.
Just for clarification, this is more of a observation than a criticism.
I have noticed people asking questions, but the people asking the original question mostly do not reply to some amazing supportive answers. Some of the answers have questions within them and they are not replied to either. Some answers are great as standalone supportive replies.
A lot of the time I'm reading what other people have said in reply to the person's question and I see this amazing, supportive help and wonder why they person that written back with a reply, even when the answer has a question for the questioner, if you see what I mean.
One recent example is "What do you mean you're an agent?" I was wondering the same, but the person that submitted the question did not reply.
Many times I'd like to follow and see what the questioner thought of the answer, but there's no reply.
It's all good, if there's no reply from the questioner too, if the the person that raised the question is getting some benefit from the answer that's what matters. I just hope they are reading the answers, there's no way of knowing.
It's different when the number of answers are simply too many to reply to them all.
It's not a complete criticism, The reason I am asking is I want understand that persons situation better and find out what helped them. How things shaped up for them after, I'm wondering how it all worked out for them.
This also raises the question if replies to the answers are being read too. I guess they are.
When searchers are in this situation, they choose not to respond.
It’s hard to hear that decline is inevitable, there are sometimes no happy endings, and that there can be many solutions to try, and that the outcomes may not please anyone.
Caregiving, whether hands-on or with the help of residential placement, is ALWAYS TOUGH. Caregivers are sometimes looking for something in a website that can’t be found.
For me I really admire the people sharing their experience, giving their time to respond to questions. I find this very valuable and I'm sure many other do as well.
For me, someone sharing their insight and experience with something I have posted, is like "gold".
I appreciate & understand as caregivers or people associated with others doing the caregiving, there's no instant fix for many of our issues, every caregiving issue varies, but the support and advice I'm seeing in answers to poster's is like gold.
Thank you.
I also think that perhaps posters have their course of action already planned out, and then when posters tell them that course of action is wrong, they disregard those responses and just never return. All they ever wanted was validation of their (often foolish) plan of action.
Sometimes we see posters come back and react with anger because the responses aren't what they wanted.
And I think a significant number of posters are the "poor me, ain't it awful, yes, but" type of posters who really just want tea and sympathy. They have no intention of making any changes in their situation.
Wondering how a poster's situation is working out with in relation to the answers they have received; is similar to the feeling of watching a movie and not knowing how it ends.
I also see it from the perspective that people are taking the time to read people's issues, and provide some amazing answers, in that respect, I see it similar to asking the question to a good friend, if a good friend came back with soothing, caring reply, I would definitely express my gratitude to them. Obviously with the caveat that forums can get 100's or more replies sometimes, but when it's 5-10 or so answers, I'm really grateful someone spent for the time to think about how to reply to a person in need of supportive help.
All the best to you.
Then there are situations where a poster is VERY interactive with his post and those of us answering him, giving feedback with lots of back and forth. Those posts are best, imo.
So to answer your question, only God knows why there are very few replies from the people asking the questions. 🙄😣😏😑
Even today some people are social media newbies and the whole idea of conversing with strangers is a little unnerving.
The more private and introverted of us are not comfortable sharing more than the minimum.
Some people can't figure out how the site works or how to reply.
Some of us are busy and aren't checking back regularly, it may be several days or even weeks before the OP returns with a comment.
It's an unfortunate reality that sometimes people are incredibly unkind in their responses, I'm not talking about tough love but comments that are often judgmental and condescending.
And when I was first scrolling the web for answers one of the things that set AC apart was that the threads were so long and the answers so varied, almost every help forum was lucky to get one or two replies and continuing conversations were incredibly rare. AC is as much a social media platform as a help forum, and some people don't want or need that in their lives.
Some people respond, some don't, it is what it is.
And there are times when I will see what I think is just pure fiction where the writer just wants to see how many answers they will get. I tend to see that increase during school breaks and during the summer time.
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