Several people, whom I won’t name, have taken to commenting more often than is suggested by Da Roolz. Let me reiterate the relevant one: Rool #9:
Try not to dominate threads, particularly in a one-on-one argument. I’ve found that those are rarely informative, and the participants never reach agreement. A good guideline is that if your comments constitute over 10% of the comments on a thread, you’re posting too much.
This is a guideline, not a hard-and-fast dictum, but be aware that comments should be informative, advance the discussion, and aren’t there just so you can tell the world that you exist. Comments that say “+1” are particularly egregious because they say nothing more than “I agree,” evincing a laziness that can’t even produce those two words! (And even “I agree” is not that useful.)
Thanks!
Re threads, does each topic (e.g. each news item in a Hili Dialogue) count as a separate thread, or is a multi-topic post just one thread?
Each POST is considered one thing to comment on, though I give a little more leeway on the Hili dialogues (one-offs, really) than to posts like the one on free will. If you want to comment on a multi-topic post with few comments, put all your thoughts in one comment (or 10% of the total).
My +1’s are meant simply to thank a commenter for his/her comment and let them know they are not alone. Not trying to be lazy, but rather the +1, to which I was introduced in this column, is simply even more parsimonious than the words “I agree”.
But I will accept the clarification and desist.
Saying that you agree and they are not alone is sometimes appropriate, but just consider my aversion to +1s as one of my quirks, like using the word “d*g”.
Thank you, once again, Jerry. 🙂
Ooohh. My apologies. I might be one of the offenders though in my defense I don’t get into long thread arguments (I comment on separate issues), and I didn’t know the +1 thing was a no no.
I’ll certainly “stifle” some of my more loudmouth tendencies in future.
best,
D.A.
NYC