I read it, you read it… it’s a conversation thread.

Is there some notion that replying on lemmy must be strictly to engage the parent comments author?

Because I’ve never seen so many people policing replies as I have here. It’s like we hate engagement or something.

“You” doesn’t mean I’m talking to the bot, I’m using it as a general descriptor for a person. I could have said “I understand being cautious with one’s statements”, but that’s very formal and unnecessary in a comment on a social media website. I can easily imagine you reading a sentence like “You need to study really hard to get to Harvard” and think someone is talking to you personally instead of making a general statement.

Communication is a cooperative process, interpreting what others say maliciously and automatically assuming they made a mistake is the definition of “bad faith engagement”.

Edit: to clarify even further: since I commented on the text of the article, I’m replying to the summary. Maybe that’s the part you’re confused by.