One of the problems is that you say things like “I’ve been rational for years”. Sorry. No, you haven’t. EY hasn’t been rational for years. You may have been an aspiring rationalist, but that’s a far cry from actually being rational. When you say things like that it is extremely off-putting because it sounds self-congratulatory. That’s something that this community struggles with a lot, and we typically heavily downvote things that are that way because they send very bad signals about what this website is. Beyond that, when it’s said by someone with the username “911truther”, it implies an element of “You’re not rational unless you’re a truther too”, which mean it or not, is how it comes across.
Secondly, and this relates, your username. It’s inherently political, which brings up all of our opposition to politics every time you make a post. That’s not a good thing, and it will be very difficult for anyone on this site to take you seriously. If two different people wrote two articles that were of exactly equal caliber, and one was named BobSmith, and the other was named Obama2012, I would anticipate at least 2-3 times the upvoting on the former and 2-3 times the downvoting on the latter. And 9/11 is so much more of a polarizing issue. The vast, vast majority of people here disagree with you. But roland, despite being wildly downvoted every time he brings up 9/11, actually manages positive karma, because it’s not inherently brought up every time he posts. I can not recommend strongly enough that you delete your account and create a new username if you wish to continue on this site. If you’re a 911 truther, I would not suggest lying about that, but choosing that as the phrase by which you identify yourself is not a very effective strategy for being taken seriously on this site.
Thirdly, the great grandparent to this isn’t a terrible comment. I agree with you there. I likely would have upvoted it had it been made by a different username, since I didn’t think it deserved that level of downvoting (but not because I thought it was particularly wonderful in and of itself).
One of the problems is that you say things like “I’ve been rational for years”. Sorry. No, you haven’t. EY hasn’t been rational for years. You may have been an aspiring rationalist, but that’s a far cry from actually being rational. When you say things like that it is extremely off-putting because it sounds self-congratulatory. That’s something that this community struggles with a lot, and we typically heavily downvote things that are that way because they send very bad signals about what this website is. Beyond that, when it’s said by someone with the username “911truther”, it implies an element of “You’re not rational unless you’re a truther too”, which mean it or not, is how it comes across.
Secondly, and this relates, your username. It’s inherently political, which brings up all of our opposition to politics every time you make a post. That’s not a good thing, and it will be very difficult for anyone on this site to take you seriously. If two different people wrote two articles that were of exactly equal caliber, and one was named BobSmith, and the other was named Obama2012, I would anticipate at least 2-3 times the upvoting on the former and 2-3 times the downvoting on the latter. And 9/11 is so much more of a polarizing issue. The vast, vast majority of people here disagree with you. But roland, despite being wildly downvoted every time he brings up 9/11, actually manages positive karma, because it’s not inherently brought up every time he posts. I can not recommend strongly enough that you delete your account and create a new username if you wish to continue on this site. If you’re a 911 truther, I would not suggest lying about that, but choosing that as the phrase by which you identify yourself is not a very effective strategy for being taken seriously on this site.
Thirdly, the great grandparent to this isn’t a terrible comment. I agree with you there. I likely would have upvoted it had it been made by a different username, since I didn’t think it deserved that level of downvoting (but not because I thought it was particularly wonderful in and of itself).