Convening public benefit and charitable foundations working in open domains (OSI blog)

Which is why I call it anecdata.

What you have said is a FACT. What I have said is a FACT. Because we've experienced it. People who DON'T WANT this stuff to be true will damn it as "anecdote" so they can ignore FACT.

Yep, a lot of what's on the internet is garbage. A lot of what's on the internet is hearsay. But (to use an appropriate argument for me seeing as I'm in my caravan) the towing plugs are designed to only go in one way. A lot of people believe it's impossible to miswire your trailer as a result. But I've done it. My father in law has done it. I've been behind other vehicles that have done it.

Are you going to believe "the accepted truth"? Or are you going to believe someone who says "the accepted truth is wrong because *I* have done the "impossible" "?

That's what's behind the real meaning of "the exception proves the rule". If my experience contradicts the rule, then it's data. End of. If I've seen loads of people saying their experience contradicts the rule, that's hearsay. If somebody says "the internet disagrees with you", that's rumour :-)

You have to weigh what is presented to you, and decide whether it's evidence (the person presented it to you experienced it), hearsay (they are repeating what other people presented to them as evidence), or rumour (they don't know where it came from). Too many people, when presented with evidence that contradicts their belief, are too ready to dismiss it as rumour and ignore it.

Of course, my experience may not be real. My understanding of the situation may be wrong. There's a whole bunch of ways my experience can APPEAR to contradict the rule without actually doing so. But to dismiss my experience without trying to understand it is very dangerous ... there's a good chance it's YOUR experience is wrong, not mine (which led to a major CoVid disaster, as one example)

Cheers,
Wol