Quote:
Originally Posted by rhadin
Personally, even though I disagree with some of your stances, they would not influence my decision to buy or not buy your books.
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It's not that I disagree with his stances, it's that he writes about them with such scorn, pompousness and disregard for those he dialogues with that I find him alienating. If he's this unpleasant in a hundred-word forum post, I can't imagine choosing to spend a couple hundred pages with him. There are plenty of people whose personal opinions I disagree with but I would still buy their books. The issue is how he presents himself and how that builds---or fails to build---an audience who connects with him.
This thread is a perfect example. He asked for honest feedback. People gave him some. And for every suggestion, he had an argument about why it did not apply to him. For every person who challenged him on it, he outright dismissed them and in some cases even demanded that they go away and stop bothering him. The suggestion I gave him---which is coming from my own opinion, but was reiterated by at least a few others who share it---he has mocked in every post he's made since then. I have accepted that Steven and I are just people who have to agree to disagree on some things (the piracy thread being an example---it seemed to get ever more circular the longer it went on for). But 'being someone with whom I disagree' and 'being someone who presents himself, in a short message board post, in a way that makes me sure I would not enjoy his writing in a longer form' are two completely separate things.