What is the first thing that goes through your mind when you see a blank post?

The person probably thought it would stir up unnecessary conflict on the Q, or was insensitive, and thought better of it shortly after posting. That’s why I usually delete.

Do you ever feel like whatever it was was probably directed at you personally?

That the person posted something negative and decided it’s best to eliminate it.

Whether I felt it was posted in reference to the comment above or to the OP, might depend on anything or nothing (in other words, I haven’t given it that much thought or it might depend on the circumstances, like was there a nasty fight above).

The fist thing I think is “oops, better moderate that empty post.” The second thing I think is “they must have changed their mind.” Jellies blank their posts for all sorts of reasons. Maybe they’ve decided that the tone or content of their answer was not what they wanted it to be. Maybe they’ve decided that they don’t actually want to get involved in the discussion. Or maybe they’ve just posted an answer to the wrong question. Unless I’ve seen the original answer or the jelly flags it with an explanation of what happened, it can be impossible to know.

P.S. [Mod Says] Moved to Meta.

I wish I could talk like that @SavoirFaire! But DO you guys moderate empty posts? Why would you do that?

Thanks for moving.

They wrote and posted an answer before they thought good about it and then regretted it.
Is what I think when I see it.

The screen will blank if you attempt to include an emoji.

If they, for whatever reason, choose to self censor as is suggested here, then surely a brief sentence explaining as much would be better than leaving it blank which could be considered provocative at best & downright ignorant at worst.

@Dutchess_III We do moderate empty posts – particularly in the General section where they wouldn’t fit within the perimeters of the Guidelines.

The poster had second thoughts about an answer and deleted it entirely. But the void remains unless you know how to circumvent it. Then, of course, the mods may remove the void.

My first response is that I missed the good stuff.

It’s interesting how some people see to take it personally, while others just shrug their shoulders.

@RedDeerGuy1 I think that when I see a modded post.

I just look over them, as if they weren’t there…

I wonder why they bothered to post anything. Not all questions have to be answered.

When I do it, it’s in a thread I’m already participating in. When I posted it I thought I had something to contribute, but quickly realized I didn’t, or it may have come off as too argumentative, or I posted in the wrong thread, so I backed out. No harm, no foul.
I, for one, don’t feel like I need to answer every question.

I see it as the visual representation of someone staring blankly at me for a few seconds and just blinking.