Anonymously brilliant, anonymously stupid
BTW, although Mr./Ms. Bubba is clearly pointing us away from appeals to scientific authority, he/she
did give us some info about personal background:
"... For the record, I'm a practicing sensory
neuroscientist, just a couple of fields away from olfaction and pheromones."
The rule rather than the
exception on this forum has always been anonymous postings. I like that because:
* It encourages open
discussion about subject matter that many would perceive to be creepy and manipulative
* It encourages posts
that must stand or fall on their own ideas, without regard to who has the biggest PhD or whatever
Of course
posters are allowed to give their backgraound, claims to authority, or whatever else they want to put out there. And
people are also allowed to give that info whatever credence they feel it deserves (it's being open, it shows
expertise, it's a shameless attempt to shout down those less "qualified", it's a blatant commercial hijacking of
an opinion forum, or whatever).
I can see why some think background and authority are necessary to having a
worthy opinion here, but even more so I appreciate reading anonymous posts and evaluating them on their own
standalone merits. Personally I don't care what Mr./Ms. Bubba's credentials may be - I'm just glad he/she is
posting!
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