It’s not about “safety” (whatever you might precisely mean by that), but about genuine desire not to upset people. Being singled out as a bad example is always unpleasant and inherently looks like a personal attack. Even if we were talking about uncontroversial errors of scientific fact, I would still be reluctant to start singling out concrete instances of people committing them here, for fear that it might look like I’m trashing their intellectual abilities in general.
Because Robin steps in it often enough over at OB that he does frequently collect reactions that are long on emotion but a bit short on logic. I see that only rarely here. And to be honest, I see it more frequently from the male side than from the female side.
You’re right that it’s much more frequent on OB, but that’s because OB is often linked from all sorts of more mainstream blogs, and also because it requires no registration for commenting. Out of all places on the internet that present genuine contrarian views, OB is among the most visible ones for people who otherwise stick to mainstream venues.
As for such incidents here, I agree that they happen on all sides. Unfortunately, I don’t think it would be feasible to settle the question of their relative frequency by concrete numerical comparisons.
Unfortunately, I don’t think it would be feasible to settle the question of their relative frequency by concrete numerical comparisons.
I don’t find that especially unfortunate, because I don’t see what purpose it would serve. If we found it came more often from men, or more often from women, it wouldn’t make us any more or less interested in avoiding the problem.
Perplexed:
It’s not about “safety” (whatever you might precisely mean by that), but about genuine desire not to upset people. Being singled out as a bad example is always unpleasant and inherently looks like a personal attack. Even if we were talking about uncontroversial errors of scientific fact, I would still be reluctant to start singling out concrete instances of people committing them here, for fear that it might look like I’m trashing their intellectual abilities in general.
You’re right that it’s much more frequent on OB, but that’s because OB is often linked from all sorts of more mainstream blogs, and also because it requires no registration for commenting. Out of all places on the internet that present genuine contrarian views, OB is among the most visible ones for people who otherwise stick to mainstream venues.
As for such incidents here, I agree that they happen on all sides. Unfortunately, I don’t think it would be feasible to settle the question of their relative frequency by concrete numerical comparisons.
I don’t find that especially unfortunate, because I don’t see what purpose it would serve. If we found it came more often from men, or more often from women, it wouldn’t make us any more or less interested in avoiding the problem.