The bane of my Twitter-scarred existence is explained right here. Please, if you mean your paraphrase/alternate wording to be part of a conversation, make it conversational. "Yeah, I always think of it like..." Make your agreement and understanding explicit. - ThreadSky

alexandraerin.com • 8 days ago

The bane of my Twitter-scarred existence is explained right here.

Please, if you mean your paraphrase/alternate wording to be part of a conversation, make it conversational. "Yeah, I always think of it like..." Make your agreement and understanding explicit.

Reposted from rahaeli

If you want to paraphrase the post you're replying to in order to explain the thing in different words, do not hit reply, because you will be explaining that thing to the person who explained it to you and none of your followers will see it.

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alexandraerin.com•8 days ago

The thread (which starts here) goes into a lot of permutations of this. I'd like to add what I think is the worst and starkest example.

If someone posts a link to an article about a person you want to curse out, and you reply to the post with "STFU! GO TO HELL!", you just've said that to the poster

alexandraerin.com•8 days ago

And just as a simple, all-purpose rule to avoid misunderstandings: if you mean your reply to be understood as agreeing with the post above it, be explicit. Literally "Yes, and" that shit like you're in an improv scene before your illustrative example, relevant anecdote, topical joke, etc.

alexandraerin.com•8 days ago

You might think it's obvious from the text of your post that you agree. But that feeling might be rooted to some degree in your own knowledge of yourself, your intent, and your thoughts on the subject. None of that is visible to anyone else! The OP might not know you at all!

alexandraerin.com•8 days ago

Much more on Twitter than on here, I had so many replies that weren't insulting and weren't obviously argumentative, but they weren't obviously anything. The number of times a day I would read a reply and think "why is this person telling me this" got exhausting.

alexandraerin.com•8 days ago

And part of that was me, but part of it being me was that parsing people's intentions is easier when you're not edgy and defensive and low on social spell slots because of constantly parsing statements for unstated intentions.

thomaswilliams.bsky.social•8 days ago

Yeah, any post with lots of replies on here (especially if politics/current affairs related) 90% of the replies seem to be pointless, nothing more than a more verbose version of clicking “like”. It’s not actively malicious but it makes actual conversation harder

kinkyturtle.bsky.social•8 days ago

Yeah! If one writes a reply to which one then feels the need to tack on a "To be clear, I'm yelling at the guy in the link, not you", then it was not worded well.

calicoday.bsky.social•8 days ago

Never thought of it this way before but just jamming "Yes, and..." in front of a reply could be very effective dealing with difficult people in other spheres as well. 🤔

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