Perhaps we need a numerical scale of politeness, from +10 to −10. Up at +10 the speaker sometimes fails at being a good friend by not speaking up when they should, for fear of being rude, and other times fails at speaking up because their necessary disapproval is phrased in such excruciating polite terms that it is mistaken for approval. Meanwhile −10 is the kind of vulgar abuse whose real aim is to sever a social connection that is no longer desired. Zero is an all-business neutrality, poised between being cold and brusque (at −1) and respectful of the listener’s lack of time and need for boiled-down, to-the-point critique (at +1)
If “Hey, this is pretty good!” is a lie (the speaker thinks it pretty bad, but is trying hard to be polite) then a = +8
b = +4
If “It’s badly written.” is understood as including some actionable hints on how to improve the writing c = +2. If negative judgments lack the kind of explanations that point to how to improve the writing c = −2
d = −9
My thought is that when some-one declares Crocker’s rules the outcome that they are hoping for is that politeness gets dialed down from +9 to +3. I think it would be rude to ignore this and carry on at +9.
Perhaps when jmmcd writes “I’m still going to attempt to be polite.” his main point is that it is important to keep ones sharp tongue in its scabbard and not go negative. And since it is easy to come across as 3 points less polite than one intends his practical advice is to respond to Crocker’s rules but still stay above +3, to avoid accidentally going negative.
It’s worth noting explicitly here that the zero-point isn’t global.
That is, if you are operating at +10 politeness relative to my baseline as a listener, I may be unable to figure out that your “excruciating polite” disapproval is actually disapproval; but the exact same behavior might communicate perfectly clearly to someone else whose baseline is 8 (relative to whom you would be operating at +2) and might be so rude as to inhibit clear communication for Sam down the street, whose baseline is 17 (relative to whom you would be operating at −7).
Perhaps we need a numerical scale of politeness, from +10 to −10. Up at +10 the speaker sometimes fails at being a good friend by not speaking up when they should, for fear of being rude, and other times fails at speaking up because their necessary disapproval is phrased in such excruciating polite terms that it is mistaken for approval. Meanwhile −10 is the kind of vulgar abuse whose real aim is to sever a social connection that is no longer desired. Zero is an all-business neutrality, poised between being cold and brusque (at −1) and respectful of the listener’s lack of time and need for boiled-down, to-the-point critique (at +1)
If “Hey, this is pretty good!” is a lie (the speaker thinks it pretty bad, but is trying hard to be polite) then a = +8
b = +4
If “It’s badly written.” is understood as including some actionable hints on how to improve the writing c = +2. If negative judgments lack the kind of explanations that point to how to improve the writing c = −2
d = −9
My thought is that when some-one declares Crocker’s rules the outcome that they are hoping for is that politeness gets dialed down from +9 to +3. I think it would be rude to ignore this and carry on at +9.
Perhaps when jmmcd writes “I’m still going to attempt to be polite.” his main point is that it is important to keep ones sharp tongue in its scabbard and not go negative. And since it is easy to come across as 3 points less polite than one intends his practical advice is to respond to Crocker’s rules but still stay above +3, to avoid accidentally going negative.
We might be in complete agreement.
It’s worth noting explicitly here that the zero-point isn’t global.
That is, if you are operating at +10 politeness relative to my baseline as a listener, I may be unable to figure out that your “excruciating polite” disapproval is actually disapproval; but the exact same behavior might communicate perfectly clearly to someone else whose baseline is 8 (relative to whom you would be operating at +2) and might be so rude as to inhibit clear communication for Sam down the street, whose baseline is 17 (relative to whom you would be operating at −7).