huju- I think you are over-interpreting what I said and making assumptions as to my assumptions. I never meant to disparage anyone here or suggest that anyone was providing “uninformed opinion unrelated to actual facts.” Most people here present logical, well reasoned opinions based on their experiences, observations and also personal feelings. Yes, actual facts, based on what they have seen, what their neighbor has told them, what their relative experienced. That is different from hard statistics, large data sets. I think that when posters ask for others’ opinions, they want those non-professional insights from regular people (assuming that the “YWN Coffee Roomers” as you call them are “regular”). Not everyone can back up their opinions with statistics because they are not professionals, and do not have data on large populations at their fingerprints. I don’t think that only statisticians can give opinions, or that people’s comments have no value because they cannot tell you the percent of people who share that experience. What I am trying to say is that the CR is not a scholarly journal, but a conversation between interesting people.
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