After being rebuffed most people would not be interested in determining the reasons. Kudos! A large part of my rebuke was attention-grabbing. You could be a brilliant conversationalist with only a little effort. (Carl Rogers, 1961,
On Becoming a Person.) This will make you happier, too. (Martin Seligman (2002),
Authentic Happiness. :)
1. Proscenium.
ariaspi: … If it's difficult for you to separately quote the paragraphs you reply to, at least put the numbers to your delimiting lines too (1. ======), not only to the replies. …
Yes, I concur: my main concern is orphan pointers. Even the enumerated paragraphs seem anaphorically insubstantiated: the comments of the linked list point … where?
The process of re-reading the text to find your referent is not conducive to short-term memory and, therefore, neither for (reading) comprehension. Just add the numbers into the quoted text.
The classical writer and Stoic, Horace, advocated writing beautifully & usefully (
dulce et utile).
2. Attitude
GameRager: If I offended…
If someone engages me in conversation, I shall meet them, equally. I do not unintentionally insult anyone; if someone conjures hurt, that is their lookout. (Otherwise the volume of text would be much more onerous, requiring —— as it would —— many more emoluments to sooth potential harm. As your post demonstrates, modern social media burdens the writer with a surfeit of Poean prolepsis.*)
GameRager: … you do come off as a bit arrogant yourself (and smug) sometimes …
That’s an irregular verb: I am assertive, you are arrogant, s/he is smug. ;-)
If something is worth saying, say it, but don’t just add to the ambient noise. Instead make an impact. If someone is wrong, tell them. I try to be the voice that I want to hear when I am ignorant: patient, precise and clear. I trust this is how others read my graffiti. :)
GameRager: Also I do cut back a ton here on writing and replying …
There is no inherent fault in writing voluminously. “
The Lord of the Rings is too long” said precisely nobody who liked it.
My complaint is the apparent (unintended) lack of respect shown by you to your readers. Refocus your attention from the effort required to think instead of their precious time. It is an investment for others, paid forward, in anticipation of their ongoing participation in the conversation, Yes? Also, this becomes (a saving of) an expense to you, should you ever re-read the comments later.
To paraphrase Churchill, I can make a ten-thousand-word comment on practically anything without preparation, but to produce something concise that lends itself to be read by others (who may not agree with the premise/s) requires serious effort.
It takes longer and is more difficult but, as Viktor Frankl (1969,
The Will to Meaning) noted, this makes us better. Also Treebeard: “You must understand, young Hobbit, it takes a long time to say anything in Old Entish. And we never say anything unless it is worth taking a long time to say.” (Apologies to the estate of JRRT, quote from
The Two Towers.)
Further, increasing the quality of your responses reduce their quantity. This will make you happier (Barry Schwartz, 2004,
The Paradox of Choice) and more successful (Walter Mischel, 2014,
The Marshmallow Test).
GameRager: 3. It would help just a bit to know what I got wrong rather than having me re-read it and risk getting it wrong once more.
To quote Yoda: “And that is why you fail.”
3. As to your plea for clemency in comprehending the poetic predicate, salvation follows.
Classical Latin second conjugation verb
audēre (to dare) in the imperative mood, commanding the reader (second person singular), through the infinitive, third conjugation,
sapere (to understand).
The son of an emancipated slave, Quintus Horatius Flaccus, wrote this 23BC. His verse urges “(Reader, you ought to)
dare to know!” (Your translation was pretty good; I wanted you to think more about Horace.)
Two millennia is more than 160 generations. It has stood the test of time; good maxims duly become truisms, and we are the better lest we forget. But that is merely the superficial meaning —
plus ultra!
Satire
You have previously stated your desire to engage others in socially interesting topics, but are frustrated by the proscription of politics here; Horace tells you to use satire.
At the Horatian end of the spectrum, satire merges imperceptibly into comedy, which has an abiding interest in the follies of men but has not satire's reforming intent.
[
Encyclopaedia Britannica]
Horace (and a century later, Juvenal) have had a pervasive (indirect) influence on all subsequent literary satire. The first English Poet Laureate, John Dryden (C17), described them as comedic and tragic; “…wit can also be sombre, deeply probing, and prophetic, as it explores the ranges of the Juvenalian end of the satiric spectrum, where satire merges with tragedy, melodrama, and nightmare.”
Ibidem.
Horace discussed the appropriate tone of the moral satirist, who attracts ire by attacking vice and folly, in three Satires (I.iv; I.x; & II.i).
… Horace opts for mild mockery and playful wit as the means most effective for his ends. Although I portray examples of folly, he says, I am not a prosecutor and I do not like to give pain; if I laugh at the nonsense I see about me, I am not motivated by malice. The satirist's verse, he implies, should reflect this attitude: it should be easy and unpretentious, sharp when necessary, but flexible enough to vary from grave to gay. In short, the character of the satirist as projected by Horace is that of an urbane man of the world, concerned about folly, which he sees everywhere, but moved to laughter rather than rage.
Ibid. We could call you
Gameslaughter.** :D
GameRager: … common sense advice … should be held as valid. …
I, too, am a meritocrat. My rebuke was to help you understand that the internet is full of people, and some are smarter than you (and me).
GameRager: … how is it me "presuming to know you"…
When I choose correct a comment, it is because I know the comment is wrong.
Generally, the presumption you have is one of solipsism. Although you may indeed be the (first) recipient, in time you will be the least important (assuming anyone else ever reads the comments, of course!) if only because I will return later. (I use social media for cognitive cloud saves,
per capsulam. These replies are a repository of my thoughts and perspectives that I may subsequently review at leisure.) So, while I value (variously) your (and others’) replies, they are not my primary goal.
Balloon Help: I play games just as everyone does. My preferred social media entertainment is to facilitate knowledge. I strive to bring luminous flux to bear on darkness, to yield irradiate enlightenment, reducing ignorance. My
Dwek mindset is not fixed but
growing (Carol Dwek, 2006,
The New Psychology of Success).
GameRager: 5. We all crave attention and social contact …
All mammals are gregarious, humans moreso (Harry Harlow, (1958),
The Nature of Love). Everyone wants to be appreciated (including your intended readers). Similarly, a lot of (most?) people want to be known, or remembered, or both —— else why do they chase “likes”?
Tantalus
Horace would council you [
mutātō nomine], to be mindful of the myth of Tantalus [
dē tē fābula nārrātur], when you are feeding the gnawing Fear of Missing Out: it will never be sated. (Daniel Gilbert, 2006,
Stumbling on Happiness, noted that, because of the way the brain works, our predictions of what will make us happy are unreliable.)
Finally, Horace said “I shall not wholly die (because I will live when others read my poëtry)” [
Odes III.xxx.6,
nōn omnis moriar]. I am honouring him by invoking his work. Maybe, if we are successful, others might want to read and pass on our writing in the future, too. It is a noble goal, methinks.
________
* To minimize mischaracterization through Poe's law, there is a requirement to add proleptic qualifiers. In Postmodern times political correctitude behoves us (and behooves you :) to prevent captious offence-taking; an unfortunate but essential precaution in mute social media, bereft of nuance, amongst fragile minds.
** Balloon Help: both laughter and slaughter.