Dexeron made a pretty good response to this, but I do have two things to add:
First, contrary to how it may appear, I don't have the time to read everything posted here, let alone respond to everything. Same with the other political "forum" I frequent. And if I did have that kind of time, I would promptly invest it elsewhere, like my garden. (No offense!)
Sometimes I have a solid hour to think something through and write a nice little collection of comments. That's when I'm here "at my best". Most of the time I have a few minutes to read, then a few minutes to make one response, then I'm off doing something else. And in most of those cases, probably to the detriment of the forum (since I expect a lot of people behave this way), I choose the reply I can make the most quickly ... and that usually takes the form of a critique.
Of course, referring to the exchange that led you to direct me here, I should have known better than to say anything contrary under a comment by ddstory, since I was put permanently on ddstory's shit list the day I joined the forum.
The second thing I feel I should add is something that probably nobody wants to hear, or think about:
Reasonable, thoughtful, long-form replies to the posts here often get crickets in response.
I remember many incidents where, after knocking holes in someone's argument (or references) back and forth, they've said the equivalent of, "Oh yeah? Well if you're so smart, what would YOU do/legislate/say?" ... And I write a long, careful explanation of my position, taking care not to ruffle any feathers ... and that gets zero responses (or barring that, a pleasant but meaningless response) and the exchange just stops cold.
"Was that worth it?" I ask myself...
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Date: 6/4/16 02:16 (UTC)First, contrary to how it may appear, I don't have the time to read everything posted here, let alone respond to everything. Same with the other political "forum" I frequent. And if I did have that kind of time, I would promptly invest it elsewhere, like my garden. (No offense!)
Sometimes I have a solid hour to think something through and write a nice little collection of comments. That's when I'm here "at my best". Most of the time I have a few minutes to read, then a few minutes to make one response, then I'm off doing something else. And in most of those cases, probably to the detriment of the forum (since I expect a lot of people behave this way), I choose the reply I can make the most quickly ... and that usually takes the form of a critique.
Of course, referring to the exchange that led you to direct me here, I should have known better than to say anything contrary under a comment by ddstory, since I was put permanently on ddstory's shit list the day I joined the forum.
The second thing I feel I should add is something that probably nobody wants to hear, or think about:
Reasonable, thoughtful, long-form replies to the posts here often get crickets in response.
I remember many incidents where, after knocking holes in someone's argument (or references) back and forth, they've said the equivalent of, "Oh yeah? Well if you're so smart, what would YOU do/legislate/say?" ... And I write a long, careful explanation of my position, taking care not to ruffle any feathers ... and that gets zero responses (or barring that, a pleasant but meaningless response) and the exchange just stops cold.
"Was that worth it?" I ask myself...