Rhetorical skill permits one to win an argument when one does not have the facts. I mod a default. It's the fifth or sixth I've modded. I've been bestof'd something over 100 times and I haven't done much more than modding since 2011. My trophy case says "load more trophies." I was nominated Redditor of the year in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Gifts on my behalf have paid for nearly a week of Reddit server time and Reddit's first podcast is partly about me.

Facts. I haz them.

Here's rhetorical skill:

I'm sorry I offended you.

I think you didn't mean to come across as offensive. I reckon you rarely do. However, based on your response (and previous responses to others - this is a small site), you come across as offensive by mistake with disquieting regularity. Here's why we like Hubski better:

- On Reddit, all you ever get is a downvote. On Hubski, you get a discussion.

- On Reddit, you're a never-seen-before username. On Hubski, you're a precocious-but-prickly homeschooler that I still choose to talk to.

- On Reddit, there's no context to anything. On Hubski, I've watched you trip over your own caltrops so many times that when you took "naive" in an insulting way, even though I didn't mean it that way, it was easier to lance the boil and let you vent.

Feel better?

'cuz here's the thing: Hubski is not a site where you only get to talk to people you agree with. Not only that, but the people you disagree with are around a lot. Again, voice of experience: I've got a long-ass mute list. Several people on there I've tried to come to terms with many times. Can you say the same thing about Reddit? Are there people on there that have rubbed you the wrong way for years but you still have to be civil to them for the sake of the general level of discussion?

(see, I can, but we all mod defaults. Disagreements at that level make the news. Call me a corner case.)

You sound deeply frustrated. I would be, too, if every time I wanted a discussion I got a fight. But think about it for a minute: why do we want to fight you? You came into this completely neutral. You asked what you think is a completely neutral question. With each interaction it became more and more heated until here you are, QQing out in a languorous and verbose fashion.

Do your friends out there in the world say things like "Oh, that's just Waterford, he's like that?" 'cuz the world doesn't. The world takes you at face value - 93% of communication is context. Which means what you type is only 7% of what I'd get off of you if we were standing face to face having a chat. So if you have a hard time face-to-face, online's gonna be rugged.

Which means - sorry, champ - you're 93% made-up in my head. Everyone is. All of us are one-sip-out-of-a-beercan truth. Once you internalize that, you start to choose your words more carefully.

NOBODY started their interactions with you intent on giving you the ratchet. It got there though, didn't it? And we don't really do that much with each other anymore because our 93% has been filled in somewhat by other interactions. We got history. THAT is another reason we like Hubski better.

I've seen several people try and steer things back to normal with you. You don't get that on Reddit, either. But there comes a time when you gotta participate in the process, mate. If you can't have a conversation without ending up on the defensive, perhaps your conversational skills need refreshing. There is no aspect of life that won't improve, trust me.

Again, sorry to make you blow your top. Sorrier that you're having a hard time understanding why. If you've been reading this only to prove how correct your predictions were, stop. I have no skin in this game and if you left after this you'd be just another in a long line of people who come to Hubski thinking that oversharing is the same thing as empathy so they never really learn how to talk. I'm speaking to you, 7% person to 7% person, in an attempt to uncloud your eyes from the humanity. It's nice here. We get along. When we don't, we rarely call each other motherfuckers.

Go or stay. Up to you. Generally when we see someone making dire exclamations they've made their mind up and it's beyond our influence. I don't know how many hours of server time I've burned personally trying to get people to stay. Rest assured there's no reward. Yet I do it anyway. So does everybody else.

Because Hubski is better.