Why do you communicate things like this publicly? It takes other people’s attention, even if for a bit, where there seems to be no reason whatsoever for that to happen. It’s an error that costs you and others almost nothing, but an error nonetheless.
Benifets of making public proofreading comments include:
Because I also check to see if anyone else has made a comment reporting the same error, it prevents the writer from getting many messages for the same correction.
When people see the comment and a polite reply from the author reporting the error has been fixed, it encourages them to report proofreading errors that they see, instead of saying silent, improving general quality of published articles.
This doesn’t really apply in this case, but sometimes when a proposed correction resolves confusion generated by the error, the proofreading comment can help other readers to understand before the author responds and fixes the mistake.
I agree that due to being a distraction after the error is fixed, this is a tradeoff, and I would like to reduce that effect, perhaps a way to tag a thread as “resolved proofreading issue” that would collapse it be default or sort it to the end.
I agree that due to being a distraction after the error is fixed, this is a tradeoff, and I would like to reduce that effect, perhaps a way to tag a thread as “resolved proofreading issue” that would collapse it be default or sort it to the end.
Kuro5hin, a general-purpose discussion site that’s since been taken over by trolls, had a mechanism like this. When submitting a top-level comment, you could mark it as “editorial”, which would keep it hidden under default view settings. This trick worked pretty well, and I notice that K5ers seemed more eager to offer editorial suggestions than LWers.
I suspect it’s for the same reason I occasionally litter by accident and not pick it up; it’s a negative externality but the cost of self monitoring all the time is greater. I’d get worried if it goes over a (small) threshold. People like the communication for non-informational reasons and occasionally speech-litter.
Another one:
I finished reading, so that should be the last one. :)
Why do you communicate things like this publicly? It takes other people’s attention, even if for a bit, where there seems to be no reason whatsoever for that to happen. It’s an error that costs you and others almost nothing, but an error nonetheless.
Benifets of making public proofreading comments include:
Because I also check to see if anyone else has made a comment reporting the same error, it prevents the writer from getting many messages for the same correction.
When people see the comment and a polite reply from the author reporting the error has been fixed, it encourages them to report proofreading errors that they see, instead of saying silent, improving general quality of published articles.
This doesn’t really apply in this case, but sometimes when a proposed correction resolves confusion generated by the error, the proofreading comment can help other readers to understand before the author responds and fixes the mistake.
I agree that due to being a distraction after the error is fixed, this is a tradeoff, and I would like to reduce that effect, perhaps a way to tag a thread as “resolved proofreading issue” that would collapse it be default or sort it to the end.
Kuro5hin, a general-purpose discussion site that’s since been taken over by trolls, had a mechanism like this. When submitting a top-level comment, you could mark it as “editorial”, which would keep it hidden under default view settings. This trick worked pretty well, and I notice that K5ers seemed more eager to offer editorial suggestions than LWers.
Thanks, I see now how it is less settled than I believed.
In my case it’s a compulsion. No cost-benefit analysis is involved.
I suspect it’s for the same reason I occasionally litter by accident and not pick it up; it’s a negative externality but the cost of self monitoring all the time is greater. I’d get worried if it goes over a (small) threshold. People like the communication for non-informational reasons and occasionally speech-litter.
Thanks again. I guess I should proof-read more carefully.