“Cite?”

[Anonymous]

I’ve noticed an increasing number of one-word posts on various threads where posters simply post “Cite?”

It’s rarely done in good faith since it typically comes in contexts where posters are expressing their personal opinions or marshaling data that hasn’t been incorporated in academic journals or articles. The intent is typically to just try and shut down an ongoing discussion.

So my question is whether we can report such posts and whether you’d be inclined to delete these one-word posts. They just express skepticism but otherwise don’t really add much to a thread.

[jsteele]

I have also noticed an increase in such posts and I agree that they are very lazy. Feel free to report them and I will remove them.

[Anonymous]

I don't find that posters ask you to support your opinion with a citation if it's clearly stated as the opinion. If you make a claim, for example, that vaccines cause autism (please do not start a vaccine debate; this is just an example) of course, people are going to ask you to support that claim. If you aren't able to support a claim like that, you shouldn't be making it at all. That's not a personal opinion. You are making a factual claim and should be able to defend it with facts.

[Anonymous]

I ask for a citation when it's a claim that doesn't seem based in reality and/or makes reference to scientific studies.

[Anonymous]

^ and I have asked for them ever since MAGAs started pushing misinformation years ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^ and I have asked for them ever since MAGAs started pushing misinformation years ago.

Persoanlly, I think this is a useful response and makes people stop and think about their sources.

[Anonymous]

Context matters but if you’re going to engage in good faith you should probably be doing more than randomly tossing out “Cite?” any time you disagree with another poster, which is happening more and more often lately here. As Jeff said, it’s lazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I ask for a citation when it's a claim that doesn't seem based in reality and/or makes reference to scientific studies.

OP has explicitly said it could be "marshaling data that hasn’t been incorporated in academic journals or articles" so you can't challenge the data. You must accept it as fact.

[Anonymous]

How absurd OP. You can’t expect to just state something as fact and not expect people to ask you to support it. Maybe the one-word post is lame but the concept is not. Sometimes I say that when I actually wonder what their basis for believing the assertion is if I think they may have info I don’t have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How absurd OP. You can’t expect to just state something as fact and not expect people to ask you to support it. Maybe the one-word post is lame but the concept is not. Sometimes I say that when I actually wonder what their basis for believing the assertion is if I think they may have info I don’t have.

Argue with Jeff at this point. The question was about the one-word posts (or their equivalent).

I don't think he wants the forum to devolve into a series of posts that are essentially just "Says who?"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How absurd OP. You can’t expect to just state something as fact and not expect people to ask you to support it. Maybe the one-word post is lame but the concept is not. Sometimes I say that when I actually wonder what their basis for believing the assertion is if I think they may have info I don’t have.

I’m not the “cite?” poster but OP’s complaint does seem petty. Lots of things are posted in bad faith or don’t apply. Just scroll by.

[Anonymous]

NP here. I can sorta understand where Jeff is coming from. Having said that, one of the most off-putting things about this website is the amount of garbage that is spewed out as fact when a quick google search proves it wrong. I don't see much of a difference between "cite?" and "what do you based that on? do you have a link?"

But it's Jeff's website.

I agree that OP is being super petty. I also feel strongly that the real problem isn't with the posters asking "cite" but the posters spewing out the garbage that leads to the request.

[Anonymous]

I feel like one of the problems with the internet is that things get posted as fact or evidence based when they aren’t. Maybe people post in bad faith. Maybe someone used AI to find an answer and didn’t realize that they are quoting a hallucination or something scraped from the underbelly of the internet. Maybe someone just misspoke.

If someone posts something that contradicts what I heard or read or believed it’s helpful to know where they heard or read it or why they believe it so I can figure out if I’m wrong or if they are.

So, I ask where people got their information. I don’t just post “cite?” But I am basically asking the same thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like one of the problems with the internet is that things get posted as fact or evidence based when they aren’t. Maybe people post in bad faith. Maybe someone used AI to find an answer and didn’t realize that they are quoting a hallucination or something scraped from the underbelly of the internet. Maybe someone just misspoke.

If someone posts something that contradicts what I heard or read or believed it’s helpful to know where they heard or read it or why they believe it so I can figure out if I’m wrong or if they are.

So, I ask where people got their information. I don’t just post “cite?” But I am basically asking the same thing.

The most common set of "facts" that need challenged come from posters' observations from their "unbiased" viewpoint.

[jsteele]

The issue is not about posters asking others to support their arguments with valid sources. The issue is the repetitive and almost reflexive one word response of "cite?". It seems that for some posters this is all the discussion that they are capable of mustering. I've seen "cite?" is response to the most obvious observation. Someone could write, "If you eat 4 boxes of Girl Scout cookies in one setting, you are going to gain weight" and someone will reply "cite?". That's not exactly going to appear in any medical journal, but I think most of us will accept it as fact anyway.