I remember one time when that happened. It was in about 2004. I was asking about something that I can’t remember now and specifically said I wanted scientific evidence and wasn’t interested in anecdotes, but this one guy, can’t think of his name, just chimed right in with an anecdote anyway. I complained about it but by the time I’d done that another three guys had posted anecdotes. I think only about 180 anecdotes were posted but I agree that sort of thing does happen I guess.
Well, that is 200 bits of data. Not the greatest of data, but 200 is quite a lot.
Sounds like what one of the anecdote-posters tell themselves.
http://blog.danwin.com/don-t-forget-the-plural-of-anecdote-is-data/#:~:text=You%20may%20have%20heard%20the,plural%20of%20anecdote%20is%20data.&text=All%20data%20is%20information%20surrendered.
You may have heard the phrase the plural of anecdote is not data. It turns out that this is a misquote. The original aphorism, by the political scientist Ray Wolfinger, was just the opposite: The plural of anecdote is data.
Wolfinger’s formulation makes sense: Data does not have a virgin birth. It comes to us from somewhere. Someone set up a procedure to collect and record it. Sometimes this person is a scientist, but she also could be a journalist.
Yeah kinda. It’s seldom useful data because it tends to be highly biased. It is typically only data showing (at best):
(a) what the particular non-representative people with which you are communicating;
(b) want to tell you.
If that’s what you want to know, have at it. It seldom is.
Yeah, an anecdote is only useful as inspiration for an actual study designed to determine whether there is truth to it or not, scientifically speaking.
Still, 200 anecdotes, especially if they come from 200 different people, adds up to anecdata.
In every thread about “songs that don’t mean what you think they mean,” someone always posts the Police’s Every Breath You Take.
In every thread about roundabouts, someone always brings up the Swindon Magic Roundabout with a link to a picture. There are other magic roundabouts, but that’s the one that always gets mentioned. Someone else will post about how they hate roundabouts, usually with the complaint that Americans don’t know how to drive them.
In every Café Society thread about the cultural value of television sitcoms someone with ask either “Ginger or Mary Ann” or “Bailey Quarters or Jennifer Marlowe”?
Well, for example, exit polls are anecdotes.
Every time someone is called a pedophile, we get a correction to Ephebophile or some such thing.
In every ‘evil Repuplican’ thread, someone quotes the line “‘I never thought leopards would eat my face’, said woman who voted for the ‘Leopards Eating Faces’ party”.
Do you have any scientific evidence for that? Because as stated it sounds pretty anecdotic to me…
This is the first time I have read this, but I like it!
What’s a Repuplican? Are they in favor of handing out puppies? Because if so, I’m down.
Everytime someone makes a silly typo, someone makes a joke out of it. Or gives them a hard time, depending.
I may be confusing seeing it on this board with other sources, like the wonderfully sarcastic comments to trump’s tweets back in the day, but I have seen it oft quoted wherever Repub outrages are discussed.
Every time there is a thread where a member of some group complains about a problem they have, or that some group is affected by a problem, people have to show up to remind everybody that other group also has that problem, or has that problem worse, or that when some group complains it trivializes the problems of other group. This occasionally degenerates into the supposition that some group shouldn’t be allowed to complain, because sometimes not all members behave in the best way possible, or because some group also benefits from some privileges.
Often times those things are true. Some group does benefit from some privileges, and in general has it better than other group, but sometimes people just want a space to complain without having to take responsibility for all of the unfairness in society.
In every Cafe Society thread about music, somebody is sure to mention the band Rush. Personally I can’t stand them, but to each his own. However, if anybody got all their music knowledge from SDMB, they would think that Rush is the most famous band of all time.