Conclusion: people read the topic, not the content of the post.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

So, at one in the morning, I posted the following

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6220809&mesg_id=6220809

In the post itself I ask (what I consider to be) a reasonably sensible (in the sense that "the answer is non-obvious, at least to me") question: "Is there anyone who supported the invasion of Iraq but not the invasion of Afghanistan".

However, in the title, I got the question the wrong way round, and asked a question to which the answer was clearly "yes, lots and lots of people, including me".

Pretty much without exception, the responses to the post have answered the obvious question in the title, rather than the sensible one in the body of the text.

I feel there are two morals to this story:

1) Don't post at 1 in the morning, or at least be careful if you do.

2) Be aware when posting that most people will already be preparing there answer before they've read anything but the title, and they'll probably only skim the contents of the post.