[catach]

> being super defensive to avoid the most uncharitable possible reading.

Had my eyes opened recently by just how wild people can get with their inferences. Defense is impossible when you're asserting X, but also have to explicitly assert the entire universe of not-X.

[krapp]

> Defense is impossible when you're asserting X, but also have to explicitly assert the entire universe of not-X.

And then they either ignore you or call you a liar, because the only reason they bothered to comment was to post their manifesto against y anyway.

[catach]

At least a bad faith signal makes it easy to bail from the discussion. Seemingly-honest, good faith confusion is somehow worse due to the obligation to clarify.

[derac]

It's difficult, 1000 people can see what you wrote and it just takes one to misunderstand or jump to conclusions. That will motivate someone to respond (to feel self-righteous or helpful) more than someone agreeing with what you say. To me it's just the physics of a message board and you have to accept that reality while not taking it all too seriously.