Commenting reveals spooky workings of the mind

I don't know whether any other writers have had the same experience, but I've sometimes noticed a tendency for commenters to echo words or whole phrases used by earlier commenters. I was never sure whether this was deliberate because they couldn't think of anything new, or done completely subconsciously. Last night I discovered convincing evidence it was the latter. I read "Somewhere over the rainbow" by js-anon, and really liked it and then paused to think what would be a suitable comment. After a few seconds I came up with "Lovely sentiments, beautifully expressed." When I went to the comments page, I was deeply shocked to find my comment was word-for-word the same as the previous comment (by Linda). It was either an incredible co-incidence or something paranormal going on! Then I realised ti was neither. I'd navigated to the poem form the "Commented" page, where Linda's comment was displayed, and I'd obviously memorised it without realising it. But I could have sworn that MY comment was one I'd made up myself, not one I'd copied. And it's interesting that Linda's comment is itself quite similar to an earlier one by Philk!

I write my comment first, but then always read over the others before posting mine to try to avoid repeating something word for word, and several times have had to change what I planned to say. Other times, there just isn't a better way to express it and I leave it alone. You know what they say about great minds... Maybe that's it.

I used to notice this on school reports - in the days when we had a report book which was passed around the teaching staff. If a teacher used an interesting word in their comment about a pupil then a later teacher might well poach the word.

On the original topic may I suggest the following words and phrases to be used when commenting on my stories and songs:

"Magnificent", "Masterful", "Unique", "Tremendous", "The best story I have ever read"," Amazing characters", "Such a terrific plot", etc etc.

I received a comment with those same words in it. It came from Roget's Thesaurus

LOL...I don't care about big words. just comment. If one says what another has already said then I take that as that particular aspect of the story made a point stand out, or that this particular group of viewers are really into this aspect of the spanking scene.

For myself, at times if I did not repeat what others have said when a story already has ten or more comments I would be surprised. It is not wrong to repeat, nor is it wrong to express the same feelings.

The biggest thing wrong is when one looks at the comments already made and decides NOT to comment because everything is already written. That is the biggest wrong a viewer can make. An author values each and every comment, and rarely does he/she care if they express what others have written. The fact the viewer has taken the time and made the effort to comment, that is what is important.

Absolutely! - and I certainly wasn't criticising anyone in the slightest. I just found it fascinating that I repeated someone else's comment word for word, without even realising I was doing it, and maybe that's what happens to other people too.

Is there a psychologist in the house?

If something sparked certain emotions in you than it could have sparked the same emotions in another.

Goodgulf

I never took it that way...that is why I started with LOL.

Comment are always interesting and some times one wonders whatever point a story made on a commenter's mind when they write the comment. I have given up trying to understand comments, as when I go back and read some of mine after a week I wonder where my mind was at the time.

Overall an interesting topic

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