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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 11th, 2023

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  • To be fair, back in the day you could get better results by relying on Google with site:foobar and the Boolean/“power user” stuff. A lot of built-in search boxes on sites were a bit dodgy, or at least less flexible than AND/OR/NOT and other “power user tricks”.

    Of course, these days those seem to be ignored wholesale and even “verbatim quotes” are an utter crapshoot, this was back when Google didn’t fucking blow.











  • The advice is wank, from people who don’t know jack about this. And yes, I know - I don’t, either. That is why I don’t try to answer questions on hugely complicated fields I don’t know. Almost nobody even considered posting a source for anything and that is a huge red flag in a question that is basically about science.

    Given that the advice is off-topic, wrong, potentially risky or some combination, I am not wrong about the general sentiment. If you wanted me to phrase it some other way, maybe you could’ve been more, uh, constructive.

    After all, commenting “this is the pure dietary sugar of discussions” and then walking away is the pure dietary sugar of discussions.




  • Depending on what you mean by respect and opinion, yes. If you’re discussing an opinion then someone is probably going to expect you to explain why, that’s a logical point to cover in any such discussion. Even if it’s subjective. If it’s an opinion on something objective, then there’s an actual burden of “proof” and possible consequences, and the stakes rise accordingly.

    There aren’t many reasons to “properly” respect an opinion that is irrational (not just subjective), factually wrong (“interpretation” only goes so far), dishonest, or anything like that. I’m skeptical of endorsing any opinion until I know why it is what it is.