Do you think it rude or fine to repeat another user's idea when answering a question and then not give that user credit?

It’s routine.

Um, that doesn’t necessarily mean they were aware of the person who posted the same answer.

I’m not going to apologize for happening to have the same idea as someone else. I didn’t take it from them.

Sometimes what people do is skip through all of the other answers and submit their own. There is bound to be duplicates. I’m sure they are not doing this to be jerks or anything.

Um, that doesn’t necessarily mean they were aware of the person who posed the same answer.

I’m not going to apologize for happening to have the same idea as someone else. I didn’t take it from them.

@Ivan

Dude, you shouldn’t have quoted that so soon because the typo is still there…lol

Look….it’s happening….right now, shit.

I do think it’s a little bit rude to post to a question (one that’s looking for a factual answer rather than an opinion) without at least scanning over what’s already been posted to see if someone else has said the same thing. It’s not a huge deal, but every answer triggers an “activity for you” notice to everyone who has already posted, and it’s kind of annoying to go there and see that somebody just repeated an earlier answer. Frankly, it makes the user who posted it look a little lame.

That said, there have been many times when I’ve taken awhile to compose an answer (because I’m A: a slow typist and B: long-winded) and then discovered that meanwhile someone else has posted something very similar in front of me. Not much you can do about that.

I type too slow, sometimes there are two or more people conjuring an answer. By the time I am through the same answer maybe posted.

Three people have crafted a response while I was typing.

Edited—Harp and I were thinking and typing along the same lines.

@Harp I always find your answers worth waiting for. Even if the point may have been made, it has never been made as eloquently. Not yet, in my experience.

@pdworkin I really appreciate that.

Anyone who knowingly does so is rude and disrespectful to us all. If I have done this to any of you, I apologize and assure you it was unintentional.

Some answerers lack the patience to read every answer before offering their own. I admit to this failing sometimes. I really try to read everybody else’s answer before I answer but I am sometimes lazy or too tired to do so. See apology above.

I don’t worry about it.

Everybody has a right to post their answer and if it happens to agree with or match mine I get the sublime thrill of having someone agree with me :)

Some people don’t read the other answers before they ask the question. (I didn’t this time, I wonder if anyone else has already said that.)
What ticks me off more is when someone else gives the same answer as I gave (after me) and then they get tons of lurve for it when I didn’t get any. Somewhere inside me slips back to a high school popularity contest. It makes me wonder if it’s personal. Then I feel really stupid because it’s the internet and all, and no one knows me well enough to make it personal. To hell with Lurve anyway!~~~~

@Judi I hate that too, but wasn’t brave enough to admit it.

This is exactly why i do not read other peoples answers, before i give an answer myself.

I give attribution if another persons answer inspired or contributed to my own. Usually if someone has already answered the question in the way I intended to, I’ll just click GA under their answer and move on. Unless the questioner is obviously polling opinions, I see no point in echoing another persons answer.

Judi, I’m glad someone said it.

I’ve caught myself, I’ll just scan the board, and go dive right into the question. Then sometimes, I’ll look up and read, and realize, someone gave almost the same question as I was about too, or already did. It has happened also happened to me, when I was forming an answer, and someone else was too, at the same time.

@Merriment: I agree. And I quote you thus:
I don’t worry about it.
Everybody has a right to post their answer and if it happens to agree with or match mine I get the sublime thrill of having someone agree with me :)

I think it’s somewhat petty to worry about whether someone has ripped off your answer. Silly too. Go find another question to answer and be the star genius. And I don’t believe we need to read through everyone’s threads to answer a question. I do most of the time, but I don’t feel obligated. Especially if there ninety-seven responses.

It’s not done intentionally, but I do find it annoying if, like @Judi said, I’ve said something first and another user who says the same thing later gets all the lurve. Sometimes I wonder if it’s a popularity thing, but I’m not convinced that type of thing exists on Fluther.

@Judi: I like your attitude. You got lurved.

It bothers me to no end. Fluther is a site for discussion. Therefore, before I answer I read everyone’s answers, and if someone has already said what I want to say I either reiterate their point, giving them credit, or don’t answer.

I find it lazy to simply scroll down and answer. If the person wanted just your answer, and not a discussion, they would PM you.

What bothers me the most, as others have said, is when I write a fantastic answer, then someone after me says the same thing, and that person gets lurve for it. I SAID IT FIRST!!

@sliceswiththings

Well, don’t speak for everyone. When I ask a question, I want as many people’s answers as possible and I don’t care if some people didn’t read the others. If people want to discuss things, fine, but not everyone who posts has to respond to someone else’s post. I read everyone’s answers individually.

And maybe the reason the second person gets the lurve is because they said it better than you. :)

If people read it they generally acknowledge it. If they were writing at the same time as someone else or didn’t read the answers, repeats happen. Its perfectly fine. Its not rude at all because its unlikely that people are parroting, its more likely that something else happened..

@DominicX ; most of the time I accept that, but when it’s word for word I sometimes get my itty bitty feelings hurt.

I hope not. I sometimes find something really clever that another person says, and use it again on a different answer. I never even thought about “owning” our answers.

@DominicX: So true.

@YARNLADY: Yeah. I agree. Everyone should chill. I don’t think the people at the Pulitzer or Nobel Laureates are reading our stuff.

@Siren they’re not???? Drat I wrote this modest and humble acceptance speech for nothing? :) Oh well, thanks for the shout out on your answer.

@Merriment: Well, they could be. Pull out your best quill pens.

@DominicX For the record, I was in no way “speak[ing] for everyone.” My entire answer was explaining what I do and how I feel. The question was “do you think,” after all, and so I explained what I think.

@sliceswiththings

“If the person wanted just your answer, and not a discussion, they would PM you.”

That’s more of a general statement rather than just about yourself and your preferences. Maybe that’s what you would do, but that’s not necessarily how everyone feels when they post a question.

Anyway, I don’t want to make a big thing out of this. I’m just saying…

@DominicX Yeah, buried in a whole blurb about my opinions it was implied that it is also my opinion. I apologize that you thought I was referring to all Fluther users.