Just leave out the “I didn’t read the whole thread” part and nobody will know. It’s not like posters here on CC like to repeat the same thing someone else has said. /sarcasm/ 
(Okay, okay, yes, I know. I’m done with the meta-posts. Probably. For today, at least. Or the afternoon. Or something.)
^^ and they could have scanned or searched to see if their keywords were already mentioned.
A year ago, almost to the day, I posted this wish. (Post #576). And have repeated it each time this comes up.
Threads (or more specifically replies) that continue to offer solutions and advice long after the issue is resolved. I wish there was a way an OP could add an update to the original post AT THE TOP so we know it’s resolved. I think people read the original post, skim a couple replies and then answer without seeing that the situation is already resolved. (Not that I blame them, some threads get really too long to read every reply and that info can get lost!)
@carolinamom2boys wrote
Yes I did-that’s what made me write my post about punishing them! I just read two more “I didn’t read the thread” GAAAAAHHHH replies on other threads… b-(
Sometimes a thread has taken a twist and turn and a post responding to comments from the beginning of the thread may not be relevant to the current conversation. Just sayin’
Regarding twists and turns, here’s a common statement I have seen on multiple threads that drives me nuts: ‘I will never pay 250K for an undergraduate degree!’
Well, I may say I’d never spend $10,000 to take my family on a long vacation, but the alternative to that is staying home (and probably enjoying that more).
But it’s not 250K or nothing. Your kid is going to college somewhere. What about the publics? Here in NC we have relatively well-funded and inexpensive publics. For my daughter at NCSU, with tuition well under 10K, it costs less than 20K per year. But it will take her 5 years, not unusual at all today. (Some sites use 5 year grad rates as standard for publics anyway). So now we’re at 100K vs 250K. But how many families actually pay 250K? What about merit/fin aid maybe dropping the cost to 40K a year, making a total of 160K?
Still a big difference. But then what about first-year retention rates? The probability of actually finishing? So compare 200K or even 250K for a private college with a 90% 6 year grad rate, to 100K for a public uni with a 70% 6 year rate? Only maybe you didn’t spend the whole 100K become your kid dropped out.
Yeah, the flagships are great deals, but that’s not as true for the directionals. And the less elite private colleges that are similar in stats with directionals are not the ones with sticker prices over 60K per year.
If I drive a Nissan Versa I may look at the BMW that just whizzed by me and say, what idiot would pay 50K for a car? OK, I drive a 4 year old Flex and do say that. But I’d rather have the BMW.
And my above post is an example of what is so annoying on a thread: when a poster goes off on a tangent-rant, throwing figures around like he has metaphysical certitude, when it’s just someone’s opinion…
“But how many families actually pay 250K?”
Oh, there are definitely some of us.
@doschicos We’ll be too, if D gets into her ED dream school. But it will be worth it. Right? (Right?)
@PetulaClark Yup, so much that I’m doing it twice. 
Did someone say…Meta-thread???
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/501191-a-meta-thread-to-save-us-all-time-p1.html
^Shameless self-promotion
So will someone be required to read all 129 pages of this thread to follow the tangent it’s now on?
The more experienced posters will know that the last 5 pages of pretty much any thread in the cafe will have nothing to do with the preceding X-5 pages. 
And therein lies the problem I was referring to earlier @skieurope .
But that isn’t necessarily a problem, IMO. The PTB are able to redirect traffic if it detours too far, but allow some some meandering of conversation. Without that it would get painfully stuffy in here.
There are plenty of things one can be annoyed about, but IMO the fact that someone wants to post a comment without having read the thread in its entirety needn’t be one of them.
The meandering nature of threads (not talking veering off topic or hijacking of threads) is one of the best parts of CC IMO. It makes it interesting.
So, in the spirit of widely meandering and circling threads, I’d like to nominate for most annoying threads on CC, any thread asking “What are my chances for ____?” and any thread with the word “Harvard” in it.
(h/t @GMTplus7 )
I’m not talking about the natural back and forth exchanging of ideas that have some relationship to the thread . I’m talking about 5 pages into a thread that has no relationship to the original post to the point where you can’t even tell who the OP is. It’s like the kindergarten “telephone game.”
Threads that discuss a question that’s been debated ad nauseam or asked and answered in one or more other threads recently, causing you to spend some time searching so you can refer to the previous discussion, after which you realize you’ll never get that time back. Also, threads where you disagree with someone who has tens of thousands of posts and you have that sinking feeling that if you engage, they’ll still be there when you’ve had enough and are ready to go.