Single word forum comments: Why?

[Reber]

Why do people leave inane comments on forums?



I'm specifically talking about comments like "lol", "that's awesome", "that sux", "nice", etc. I understand if people are leaving those comments for people they know (sort of like, "hey, person I know, I'm acknowledging what you wrote because we're friends"), but I suspect that a lot of it is just random people leaving random comments.



What motivates someone to do it? Is it the online form of small talk? Is that how people start building reputations in their favorite online communities?



Yes, I've done it, just because the cool people were doing it.

You must register in order to see the links