So I think that there was a bit of a miscommunication (which is mostly my bad). The biggie is that we're using different metrics of success (i.e. "if a thread works out"). I generally do agree with your points, though I can hear the frustration in your post.
So we have different ideas on success, and what makes a successful thread. In my previous post, I though of a "successful thread" as the following:
This definition of a successful thread applies to this thread in particular and other threads with the purpose of obtaining answers that aren't mainly meant to be silly/entertaining. It is not my criteria for all threads. Additionally, this is not a science, or an attempt at a definitive definition. People will have different definitions of "trustworthiness" and such; this is unavoidable with an abstract idea like the success of a thread, and when dealing with other abstracts.
A thread that would generally fit this criteria is this thread. In this thread, we can find many different answers. The top four/five answers provide a wealth of advice which are useful, can be utilized by many people in a similar situation. Additionally, these answers are "true enough", in that even if they are completely made-up, they seem reasonable. Lastly, there's some lack of variety, but it isn't significant enough for me personally to find the thread questionable.
Now, when you look at this thread with my definition of "success", it's clear that this thread is not entirely successful.
The answers are often not detailed enough for me personally. People are attempting to describe their perception of reality and their day-to-day lives with less than a paragraph. This is nowhere near enough information to be thought-provoking (without exceptional writing).
They don't provide enough information or examples of their lives to be thought-provoking. In this case, they don't provide enough detail to really picture myself in the shoes of someone who is intelligent.
The trustworthiness of the answers is strongly questionable. While there are answers that do seem to be from genuinely intelligent people, there are a lot of answers which are upvoted, yet are not detailed enough for me to trust the integrity of the post on sight. They aren't "true-enough", because I'm not given enough information in one post to picture what it's like to be an intelligent person.
Is the info provided in the posts useful? Well, I'm having difficulty picturing myself in the shoes of an intelligent person, so it isn't useful for that. It might be useful for understanding the thoughts of people who are both depressed and label themselves as intelligent. I'll be able to better help them get into a happier place.
There is some variety to the posts, to be fair. It's difficult to really see that variety because a lot of people are upset. However, I looked at the posts again, and there actually is more variety than I gave the thread credit for.
So basically, that's why I said that these sort of threads asking intelligent people what it's like to be intelligent don't really work out too well. Yeah, there stuff to take away from these threads, but not a whole lot for me personally.