Not answering a question is Internet’s way of walking away from a conversation. You don’t usually say “excuse me, I’m late to a meeting”, as interaction is asynchronous. In the current Internet culture, saying “I don’t want to bother answering” sounds rude, and so the best solution signaling-wise is to just not answer.
Not answering a question is Internet’s way of walking away from a conversation. You don’t usually say “excuse me, I’m late to a meeting”, as interaction is asynchronous. In the current Internet culture, saying “I don’t want to bother answering” sounds rude, and so the best solution signaling-wise is to just not answer.
In my experience (for myself and interacting with others), it’s not uncommon at all for someone to
miss that there was a question at all
see a question, but put off thinking about it and then forget to get back to it
reply to some other part and forget about answering the question
figure replying to the question is uninteresting ‘because the thread is dead’
etc.