"24 business hours"

[MineralMan]

86. GBCW posts are always subject to comment.

They always have been, often because the person leaving often returns almost before leaving. As for me, I just post "bye" or "seeya" in such threads. Others, who have been around longer than I have, sometimes have other comments to make.

The bottom line is that announcing a departure from a discussion forum isn't really needed. Just slip out the back, Jack. GBCW threads are really unneeded. They're just a way for a poster to make sure everyone knows that the poster is gone. Otherwise, nobody might notice. Many people drop away from posting on this forum and others and the event passes without any foofaraw.

It's guaranteed, though, that a cryptic GBCW post will generate a long thread if the poster is a prolific poster. The posts in the thread will be a mix of people pleading for the poster not to leave and people more or less celebrating the departure. It's the nature of forums like this one that some like and some dislike almost any prolific poster.

Sometimes the pleas work and the poster doesn't actually leave. Other times, the poster returns almost immediately as though the GBCW thread never existed. In some situations, the poster shows up on some other forum to complain about the forum he or she just left. There are many forums dedicated to such complaints.

People come; people go. Sometimes they return; sometimes they don't. Sometimes they even return with a different screen name. It doesn't matter, really. Discussion and arguments continue, because that's the nature of places like DU. Forums as busy as DU barely register the leaving of someone. The discussion just goes on, because the topics are much larger than any individual.

I promise that if I leave, either voluntarily or because I can no longer physically participate, there won't be a GBCW post announcing it. My only reason to be here is to share my opinion in my posts. If I'm not here, my opinion won't be missed, because there are many people posting their opinions. I've never seen much use in GBCW posts, so I just post "bye" or "seeya" as a reply to the OP. It doesn't matter, really.