You note: “I did not really put forth any particularly new ideas here, this is just some of my thoughts and repetitions of what I have read and heard others say, so I’m not sure if this post adds any value.”
Many readers (myself included) are already familiar with these sources, and so the post comes across as unoriginal. It is basically you rephrasing and summarizing things that a lot of people have already read. In other words, it’s probably not that people are downvoting to disagree, but because they don’t see a response-journal reiterating well-known views as a good Main post. It’s not “Go away, you are not smart enough to post here!” but “Yes, yes, we know these things; this particular post here is not news.”
The post has far too much “I think”, “I realized”, “it seems to me” language in it. It’s your post; of course it is about what you think. In conversation those kind of phrases are used to soften the impact of a weird view strongly stated, but in writing they make it sound like the writer is excessively wrapped up in themselves.
(On the other hand, if the important part is the sequence of your realizations, then present the evidence that convinced you, not just assertions that you had those realizations.)
While different language communities have different standards for paragraph length, by the standards of current Web writing, your paragraphs are often way too long. To me, long block paragraphs come across as “kook sign” — that is, they lead me to think that the writer’s thinking is disorganized.
I am not the OP of the thread I linked to. Most of the downvotes I received (in the comments) of that post have been reversed.
Thanks for replying though.
You note: “I did not really put forth any particularly new ideas here, this is just some of my thoughts and repetitions of what I have read and heard others say, so I’m not sure if this post adds any value.”
Many readers (myself included) are already familiar with these sources, and so the post comes across as unoriginal. It is basically you rephrasing and summarizing things that a lot of people have already read. In other words, it’s probably not that people are downvoting to disagree, but because they don’t see a response-journal reiterating well-known views as a good Main post. It’s not “Go away, you are not smart enough to post here!” but “Yes, yes, we know these things; this particular post here is not news.”
The post has far too much “I think”, “I realized”, “it seems to me” language in it. It’s your post; of course it is about what you think. In conversation those kind of phrases are used to soften the impact of a weird view strongly stated, but in writing they make it sound like the writer is excessively wrapped up in themselves.
(On the other hand, if the important part is the sequence of your realizations, then present the evidence that convinced you, not just assertions that you had those realizations.)
While different language communities have different standards for paragraph length, by the standards of current Web writing, your paragraphs are often way too long. To me, long block paragraphs come across as “kook sign” — that is, they lead me to think that the writer’s thinking is disorganized.
I am not the OP of the thread I linked to. Most of the downvotes I received (in the comments) of that post have been reversed. Thanks for replying though.
Ah, oops. Indeed, I thought you were the poster and were asking for an explanation of the downvotes to the post.