This account receives and posts comment requests from people who prefer to not post under their own account (see bio).
I do think it is particularly reasonable in this case given claims of Nonlinear staff being willing to retaliate, as well as an active threat to take legal action (though I am not speaking for the person I posted on behalf of, and other justifications for pseudonymous comments exist even where litigation is not a major concern). I will also say that I asked the commentor to ensure this is a comment that they are willing to endorse personally, just not associate with publicly.
I agree that not much justification was provided about the claim of mediocrity, and I also agree with Ben Millwood’s comment that the object level discussion is likely of lower priority at this stage. This passed my vetting despite that in part because I saw this comment’s value more as a discussion prompt (“I’d be curious how other people evaluate Nonlinear’s work”) that could bring out more information, which may have been helpful in getting a better overview of Nonlinear’s practices or how their staff operated, or what it was like interacting with them (for good or bad), and thought this was positive in expectation. I see Gavriel’s comment (see below) as weakly supportive of this, and can imagine worlds where even more useful information came out as a result.
Disclaimer copied: “I have not carefully kept track of Nonlinear’s work and this is a pretty uninformed vague impression”
I just think they had ideas that sounded not particularly fruitful, or more costly than they were worth.
I respect the ethos of just try-it-and-see-what-happens for something like that, with minimal downside risk.
despite Nonlinear’s high profile as coordinators, I have no evidence of Nonlinear’s impact, and I’m unconvinced that they’ve found good pressure points for coordination in general.
I have also judged them more harshly for this than I otherwise would, due to what I perceive as a gimmicky and overconfident style to some of their written materials.
Ah, sorry I missed this, but have updated to agree as all your reasoning seems sound to me. I don’t know that I’d agree with posting in every instance, but it seems like a descent community service to have and given the pressures involved I think you likely made the right call in this case. Thanks for explaining, it helped change my views a bit on anon commenting :)
This account receives and posts comment requests from people who prefer to not post under their own account (see bio).
I do think it is particularly reasonable in this case given claims of Nonlinear staff being willing to retaliate, as well as an active threat to take legal action (though I am not speaking for the person I posted on behalf of, and other justifications for pseudonymous comments exist even where litigation is not a major concern). I will also say that I asked the commentor to ensure this is a comment that they are willing to endorse personally, just not associate with publicly.
I agree that not much justification was provided about the claim of mediocrity, and I also agree with Ben Millwood’s comment that the object level discussion is likely of lower priority at this stage. This passed my vetting despite that in part because I saw this comment’s value more as a discussion prompt (“I’d be curious how other people evaluate Nonlinear’s work”) that could bring out more information, which may have been helpful in getting a better overview of Nonlinear’s practices or how their staff operated, or what it was like interacting with them (for good or bad), and thought this was positive in expectation. I see Gavriel’s comment (see below) as weakly supportive of this, and can imagine worlds where even more useful information came out as a result.
Disclaimer copied: “I have not carefully kept track of Nonlinear’s work and this is a pretty uninformed vague impression”
Ah, sorry I missed this, but have updated to agree as all your reasoning seems sound to me. I don’t know that I’d agree with posting in every instance, but it seems like a descent community service to have and given the pressures involved I think you likely made the right call in this case. Thanks for explaining, it helped change my views a bit on anon commenting :)