Or is it me?

Some people have no sense for how to keep an interesting conversation. Or their sense of how much they need to hear their own voice during the conversation must be skewed. Yesterday I was stuck with people rambling in three different conversations. And three times I was thinking to myself what would happen if I stopped giving the habitual confirmation 'yes', 'oh no', 'really'?

Answer: Nothing happens. They gladly continued talking; all three of them.

How can you be so totally out of it? And whose role is it to tell people when they are rambling; when it takes fifteen minutes to get to the point that could have been made in two? Just to make it clear: I appreciate a detour on scenic routes, but what I'm referring to here is a traffic congestion or complete stand still in the tube.

Next question: Does this happen to everybody or am I more exposed to 'ramblers' than other people?

May be there is a trick that I still have to learn. How about: 'You are rambling - get to the point'. Or 'Do you realise you have been talking non-stop for fifteen minutes?'.