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I think that's an incredibly uncharitable take from this thread. Almost none of the people here are medical professionals, nor do I think most people here are f

I think that's an incredibly uncharitable take from this thread. Almost none of the people here are medical professionals, nor do I think most people here are familiar enough with usernames to target you in particular. You opinion is just as valuable as any others here. If anything, at least in this case I can see that providing a Quora page as "supporting link" works against you - because of the low quality of most Quora content. You mused about a possibility, and the comment engaged with your point at face value with a very reasonable response. They did not ask you to meet a "higher standard" or provide evidence for your idea. You escalated the discussion from there by suggesting that the Quora page is "supporting" - which it really isn't. Making conversation is fine, but if you're going to try to back up your ideas with links, its natural that people will engage with the validity of the source. If you'd linked to a publication, for example, they'd have to engage with the science of it. In this case since its Quora, what's there to engage with? Anecdotes tell us nothing - perhaps 99.95% of people who tried it had no improvement and just didn't talk about it. This is not gatekeeping, nor are you being targeted, at least in this specific case. If you'd shared your own experience, that would give us something to discuss. For example, my ex is living with HIV, and it was a long road of treatments before he was out of the woods. His health was pretty poor when he was first diagnosed, and he was unresponsive to the first line of antiretrovirals (his particular strain was resistant) and it was upto me to manage his health on a daily basis. I can't speak to your specific personal situation that you speak of, but I can appreciate that sharing them on a forum doesn't offer us any extra cred with online strangers.

DoreenMichele 5y ago
It's not uncharitable. It's highly qualified and based on more than twelve years of experience posting here. I know essentially nothing about HIV. I know a little something about using fasting to successfully treat an incurable condition. I didn't share that because it is routinely ridiculous levels of drama for me to comment on that and some people here absolutely remember me and target me. I have some mental models for why I think fasting is beneficial. I didn't share those because those amount to "personal opinion" and I can't back them up. I am happy to hear medical reasons why fasting is unlikely to work for HIV. That's mostly not the substance of the feedback I got initially.
- short_sells_poo 5y ago
  I'm really sorry that you have been the victim of such forum drama. I also agree with you that people on this forum are on balance likely to dismiss non-mainstream medical approaches. If you are open minded about these and want to discuss them without prejudice, you'll often be met with responses that may be snarky or unfairly dismissive. That's the unfair reality of holding non-mainstream ideas. By default, they are off-piste, niche, etc... However, I didn't see anything like that in any of the responses here. A very valid point was raised that you support your proposition (ie that HIV might be helped by fasting) with a Quora link. People who are not closed to the idea will find that the link just contains some anecdotal information which at best can confirm sub-conscious pre-concieved biases, but not be a robust argument. Worse, it plays into the hand of those who are outright dismissive because you served them a perfect strawman to attack. Ultimately, with any discussion forum you have to consider the audience. People don't owe you anything and particularly a forum like this where things are supposed to be debated based on merit, the bar to debate claims is relatively high. All these considered, it would've been better to simply ignore the quora link, or at least strongly annotate it saying it is just anecdotal and should not be taken as supporting evidence.
- asveikau 5y ago
  I recognize your username and I think we had small, non-antagonistic interactions here where I basically (IIRC) asked you to elaborate on your condition. I want to say that people who respond in the way you're mentioning are very likely a minority. A lot of people will read your comments and reply nothing at all. That's probably most of us, and therefore, any given comment's largest audience. That would have been me, had I not decided to comment this a little after I read your comment.
  - DoreenMichele 5y ago
    I don't really want to add to the drama here, so I've chosen to be silent for a bit. I'm also not comfortable "ignoring" you. What I described above is a persistent pattern. I don't believe I'm imagining it nor overreacting. I don't know some means to escape it without talking about it some. It's certainly not the entirety of my experience here. I wouldn't hang here so much if it were all downside.

DoreenMichele 5y ago

It's not uncharitable. It's highly qualified and based on more than twelve years of experience posting here. I know essentially nothing about HIV. I know a little something about using fasting to successfully treat an incurable condition. I didn't share that because it is routinely ridiculous levels of drama for me to comment on that and some people here absolutely remember me and target me. I have some mental models for why I think fasting is beneficial. I didn't share those because those amount to "personal opinion" and I can't back them up. I am happy to hear medical reasons why fasting is unlikely to work for HIV. That's mostly not the substance of the feedback I got initially.

short_sells_poo 5y ago
I'm really sorry that you have been the victim of such forum drama. I also agree with you that people on this forum are on balance likely to dismiss non-mainstream medical approaches. If you are open minded about these and want to discuss them without prejudice, you'll often be met with responses that may be snarky or unfairly dismissive. That's the unfair reality of holding non-mainstream ideas. By default, they are off-piste, niche, etc... However, I didn't see anything like that in any of the responses here. A very valid point was raised that you support your proposition (ie that HIV might be helped by fasting) with a Quora link. People who are not closed to the idea will find that the link just contains some anecdotal information which at best can confirm sub-conscious pre-concieved biases, but not be a robust argument. Worse, it plays into the hand of those who are outright dismissive because you served them a perfect strawman to attack. Ultimately, with any discussion forum you have to consider the audience. People don't owe you anything and particularly a forum like this where things are supposed to be debated based on merit, the bar to debate claims is relatively high. All these considered, it would've been better to simply ignore the quora link, or at least strongly annotate it saying it is just anecdotal and should not be taken as supporting evidence.
asveikau 5y ago
I recognize your username and I think we had small, non-antagonistic interactions here where I basically (IIRC) asked you to elaborate on your condition. I want to say that people who respond in the way you're mentioning are very likely a minority. A lot of people will read your comments and reply nothing at all. That's probably most of us, and therefore, any given comment's largest audience. That would have been me, had I not decided to comment this a little after I read your comment.
- DoreenMichele 5y ago
  I don't really want to add to the drama here, so I've chosen to be silent for a bit. I'm also not comfortable "ignoring" you. What I described above is a persistent pattern. I don't believe I'm imagining it nor overreacting. I don't know some means to escape it without talking about it some. It's certainly not the entirety of my experience here. I wouldn't hang here so much if it were all downside.