Persuasion

[MadMojoMonkey]

If my goal was to persuade people here, I'd probably have to stop posting for a couple months and for sure get rid of this gangster avatar. Then after I came back I would probably have to spend some time being critical of my "old" positions.

You think your avatar has a role in you ability to persuade this group of science-minded people.

I haven't read up on persuasion methods, but it seems like "know your audience, and cater to their sensibilities" has to be right up there at the top of the list.

***
In fairness, the rest of this is probably not bad.
The problem is that, on FTR, people aren't persuaded by you because your notion of what counts as evidence is not the same as ours.

I think we'd all be more persuaded if you were more openly critical of your positions. When you take an objective, inquisitive approach, you change the tone of "listen to me, I'm right" to "help me figure out how to be right." Ultimately, if you can pull this off in a disingenuous way which manipulates your position, you could maybe be more persuasive. Problem is that you're going to get actual data from your partners in the conversation and if you keep countering with your feelings, then I think you're not going to persuade this crowd any more than you have been.