Do you feel a need to reply to everyone?

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i feel the urge myself feel exactly how you do.

If somebody makes a thread that I like, I want to reply to it. If somebody makes a thread that I don't like, I do the opposite as a way to avoid hurting that person's feelings.

If I start a thread, I often feel this compulsion to reply to each one and I have done this in the past. But, now I usually post something like 'thanks to everyone for your input/suggestions', like Moog.

Yes....I seem to have the fixed idea that not replying to anything is rude or rejective. I've been like that as far back as I can remember. As a very young child I remember wondering how anybody ever managed to end a conversation. I think replying was an unwritten family rule......nobody there was comfortable to just hear what somebody said without responding somehow, even if it was just to say "Oh" which I guess was meant as a reassurance that the message had been listened to. They wouldn't even let it go with a silent nod.....almost as if eye contact was not assumed......which makes me wonder if replying is done by NTs less noticeably by body language, and as we don't have that, we simply have to make our replies more definitive and clear-cut, which makes it seem that we need to do it more than NTs?

Dad would correspond with people who shared his special interest, and I remember him being very impressed when he got a reply from a guy who had addressed every main point Dad had previously mentioned. Dad never did feel adequately listened to, and I wonder if anybody with AS is any different? Come to that, how many NTs feel that they get heard enough? If you listen to relationship counsellors and empathy specialists, they seem to believe that people in general don't listen enough.

I don't like the notion of people's ideas just hanging out there unnoticed. If somebody texts me or emails me, I have to think very carefully before I feel able to let it go without replying. In the vast majority of cases, it's the other person who stops replying first. I used to feel slightly offended by that, until I realised that all conversations have to end.

Thanks to all who responded! I'm eager to hear more insights or opinions!