Do you stop following a question when it becomes a back and forth between two people only?

Pretty much, yeah. I find it annoying when such action is defended by someone declaring that the Q is “over” so it’s OK to just chat back and forth. Especially when it wasn’t the offender’s question to start with.

I often stop following my own questions. :)

I do sometimes stop following a question, but not very often.
The first thirty times a new activity on such question pops up, I go there, with the idea that maybe something interesting finally is posted again, only to find out, nine out of ten times, that it’s another piece of chat again.
Then, the next time activity is reported, I quit it.

Hmmm, monopoly?
I shall expect a “go straight to jail” card in the “post” real soon.

I’m usually the one guilty of the off-topic bantering!

I don’t mind being the fly on the wall. Until it approaches “get a room” status on the political threads. :P

I unfollow questions fairly quickly, unless I’m the OP, then I follow it forever. When a question becomes chat between 2 jellies, it just makes me unfollow faster. This is even happening a lot more in General these days.

I had been thinking that even before your post to the extent that I wonder if Fluther is for me anymore. Some questions are degenerating into conversations that would be better held in the chat rooms.

@lucillelucillelucille…

Does the Fluther chat room work these days?

I think it does and it makes sense for “chatters” to go there or PMs after a time.

No, I don’t stop following because I understand how easily it can happen. When I first started here, I was regularly attacked by a jelly who knew NOTHING about me & my life…yet she wanted to attack me with every word I spoke twisting my words into something that I had NOT said. My initial reaction was to defend myself & my position. After a while, it sucked the life out of every post & I started looking for better ways to deal with the situation. It was hard to do, but I eventually learned to ignore because she was just voicing HER opinion & she had that right. I knew MY opinion & hers didn’t change mine so I stopped reacting to the attacks. It’s difficult at best to have a one-sided argument & things did get better.

Understanding how easy it was to bait me in the beginning, I don’t get upset when it happens to someone else because I do understand how it can happen!!! IGNORING attackers helps to shut down being attacked. We’re much too old to put up with being bullied as well as too old to give in to petty fights. Each of us has the power to STOP it!!!

I may keep a question in my “Activity for you” but not read new responses for months.

I lose interest in political questions very quickly. I may put in a comment here and there, but for the back and forth long paragraphs about this and that and this and that and Trump is great and Trump is awful and what about this and what about that, who has time for it? I don’t know how people have time to write so much about it, and I definitely don’t have lots of time to spend reading people’s opinions about it.

It used to be the same with religion questions here, Such long diatribes about Atheism vs. Christianity. I’d be like “whateverrrrrrrr.”

@jca2 summed my reasons up

If the come backs are long, drawn out affairs, I’ll drop it in a heartbeat no matter who is involved.

Yes, I do. That doesn’t mean that I think there’s anything wrong with those chatty back-and-forths; I’m sure I’ve been involved in one before. It’s fine to decide that a question is no longer relevant to you.

It’s a delicious irony to see mentioned, offending users should take their “back & forth” to PM’s or the chat room.

I mean, jellykins who protest would perhaps have been better served taking their own advice instead of asking/contributing to a question on the matter…just a thought.

@ucme This is a legitimate question about Fluther that belongs here in meta rather than in chat.

A simple PM explaining their dislike would have gotten a positive result without the “attention” of a question, legitimate or otherwise.
Oh & while we’re at it @flutherother your statement citing you’d questioned your presence here over this is overdramatic in the extreme & if true, really rather pathetic.
Now cue the faux outrage & negativity, all, like I say, completely avoidable.
Still, this is fluther eh?
Have at it because by happy coincidence, i’ve stopped following.

@ucme (If you’re still reading) Yes, you have been doing it the most lately but many of us have been guilty of it at times, including me at a time in the past. The fact the question got so many GQs probably means that it resonated with a lot of people. And as I said, sometimes it’s banter but sometimes it’s lengthy political arguments that go nowhere. I’ve liked you more in the past several months and as I mentioned , have given you more GAs as you seemed to be more pleasant here but extended public banter with a friend is wearing.

That’s what I have to say directly to you and I won’t make the mistake of having this question devolve.

No, not usually. I like to see people having fun, making new friends, and going off topic.

@ucme PM’s for me are generally just with my friends here, like you. If I argue with someone on a thread (which is not as often as it used to be!), generally unless it’s one of you that I’m close with, I wouldn’t want a PM, it’s really not that important to me.

Hmm, let me count who here has answered this question with the most responses, excluding the OP. I suspect they will continue with more banter. ;)

I just did on a few questions and I only created this account a few days ago. The consistent flirting among a select few on every question is getting annoying. Get a room already. :D