Said banner DirectedEvolution writes good content but stands out to me as one of the best commenters on science posts.
Thank you for the complement!
With writing science commentary, my participation is contingent on there being a specific job to do (often, “dig up quotes from links and citations and provide context”) and a lively conversation. The units of work are bite-size. It’s easy to be useful and appreciated.
Writing posts is already relatively speaking not my strong suit. There’s no preselection on people being interested enough to drive a discussion, what makes a post “interesting” is unclear, and the amount of work required to make it good is large enough that it feels like work more than play. When I do get a post out, it often fails to attract much attention. What attention it does receive is often negative, and Said is one of the more prolific providers of negative attention. Hence, I ban Said because he further inhibits me from developing in my areas of relative weakness.
My past conflict with Duncan arose when I would impute motives to him, or blur the precise distinctions in language he was attempting to draw—essentially failing to adopt the “referee” role that works so well in science posts, and putting the same negative energy I dislike receiving into my responses to Duncan’s posts. When I realized this was going on, I apologized and changed my approach, and now I no longer feel a sense of “danger” in responding to Duncan’s posts or comments. I feel that my commenting strong suit is quite compatible with friendly discourse with Duncan, and Duncan is good at generating lively discussions where my refereeing skillset may be of use.
So if I had to explain it, some people (me, Duncan) are sensitive about posting, while others are sharp in their comments (Said, anonymousaisafety). Those who are sensitive about posting will get frustrated by Said, while those who write sharp comments will often get in conflict with Duncan.
Thank you for the complement!
With writing science commentary, my participation is contingent on there being a specific job to do (often, “dig up quotes from links and citations and provide context”) and a lively conversation. The units of work are bite-size. It’s easy to be useful and appreciated.
Writing posts is already relatively speaking not my strong suit. There’s no preselection on people being interested enough to drive a discussion, what makes a post “interesting” is unclear, and the amount of work required to make it good is large enough that it feels like work more than play. When I do get a post out, it often fails to attract much attention. What attention it does receive is often negative, and Said is one of the more prolific providers of negative attention. Hence, I ban Said because he further inhibits me from developing in my areas of relative weakness.
My past conflict with Duncan arose when I would impute motives to him, or blur the precise distinctions in language he was attempting to draw—essentially failing to adopt the “referee” role that works so well in science posts, and putting the same negative energy I dislike receiving into my responses to Duncan’s posts. When I realized this was going on, I apologized and changed my approach, and now I no longer feel a sense of “danger” in responding to Duncan’s posts or comments. I feel that my commenting strong suit is quite compatible with friendly discourse with Duncan, and Duncan is good at generating lively discussions where my refereeing skillset may be of use.
So if I had to explain it, some people (me, Duncan) are sensitive about posting, while others are sharp in their comments (Said, anonymousaisafety). Those who are sensitive about posting will get frustrated by Said, while those who write sharp comments will often get in conflict with Duncan.