You're making a lot of assumptions, though. You're assuming self-selection, and you're assuming what kinds of situations the data is being used. The plural of a

You're making a lot of assumptions, though. You're assuming self-selection, and you're assuming what kinds of situations the data is being used. The plural of anecdote isn't data, but a group of anecdotes isn't inherently not data. Further, a collection of many anecdotes is not necessarily great data, but the quality of data can be taken into account when making assertions about it, and you can attach confidence ratings to assertions made based on data with known faults. The problem here is that "the plural of anecdote isn't data" is just a short, snappy thing to say, that doesn't capture any of the nuances of what data is and how it's used. A lot of times it's used to express a legitimate point, but I think we could express that point more accurately by actually talking about what data is instead of oversimplifying the concern.