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0 pointswpietri13y ago0 comments

This is a discussion that has been going on for decades. An author is not obligated to do "My Subject 101" at the beginning of every article. You would never complain that somebody writing in a science journal didn't explain what these "atom" things are at the beginning.

If you want to know the basics, there are plenty of places to look. E.g., the Geek Feminism Wiki: http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Geek_Feminism_Wiki

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gopher113y ago· 1 in thread

This is not a science journal, it's a blog post.

Nobody is obligated to do anything, but if they want their argument to be widely understood, which it's obvious (at least from these comments) that it's not, it's helpful to at least explain your premise.

wpietriOP13y ago

Are you seriously making the argument that all blog posts should start with basic definitions of terms for people who are too lazy to use Google?

And on this particular topic, it's reasonable to suspect that the people who have the "please spoon-feed me the basics" objection would just have a different objection.

For example, despite being provided a good starting point, you didn't say something like, "Thanks, now I'll go do my homework." Or, "Ah, now I understand." You just continued grumbling. And from an account fresh-created to comment on this topic.

This is a common enough problem that it's listed in a catalog of anti-patterns: http://www.derailingfordummies.com/derail-using-education/

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