The whole "ever wondered/no me neither" / "I know these sound super fucking boring" attitude is extremely off-putting to me. Yes I've wondered! I wonder about a lot of things! It doesn't sound boring at all! It reads like badly written kids' science books which start with the presupposition that "you think science is boring and I have to convince you otherwise" instead of just ... not doing that.
"Please don't pick the most provocative thing in an article or post to complain about in the thread. Find something interesting to respond to instead."
One reason we have those guidelines is that comments like this tend to get upvoted to the top of threads, where they sit gathering mass, letting off fumes, and choking out more interesting discussion. That's where this one was when I saw it a moment ago. Unfortunately, it takes manual intervention to do anything about, which is scarce and intermittent at best.
Writing with personality is great, but if the very first sentence of a work is essentially there to downplay the very topic it talks about, then how does that help the content whatsoever?
It kind of reminds me of people showing you art they've made, or a meal they've cooked, who feel the need to start off by saying "I know it's super bad / don't expect much / I really messed up".
– If the thing is indeed bad, then the comment won't save it. Furthermore, I might question why you're showing this thing to me in the first place if you don't believe in it yourself?
– If the thing is actually good, then I get the impression you're just self-deprecating for no reason… Possibly looking for attention? It could also make me look for flaws where I otherwise wouldn't, just for the sake of it, because you have now convinced me — at least subconsciously — that your creation sucks.
Bottom line being: Let the content speak for itself, and leave it up to the audience to decide whether something is interesting or not.
> if the very first sentence of a work is essentially there to downplay the very topic it talks about, then how does that help the content whatsoever?
It signifies 'you may not think you are going to find this interesting, you may not be very technical - but trust me, I'm like you and you will find it interesting - and this article will be written in plain, colloquial english which you are likely to understand with a bit of humour'.
It may not work for you, but it provides reassurance for other readers, such as - me.
