Lastly, it's rare for well-thought-out posts backed by data to get dog-piled by opposing views. The posts that get dog-piled usually leave a lot open for interpretation or are minimal statements.
I would disagree with you there, go onto a flat earth or antivaxx facebook page and post as well thought out and argued post as you like and then come back here and tell me what the response is. I will wait :P Even in the context of these forums, there have been some occasions with dog piling on good posts.
That probably does happen, I don't have an idea of how frequently that actually is the situation. For example, we see posts all the time that just skipped over numerous posts to reply directly to the OP. So it seems there is quite a bit of confidence to post in the BG3 forums. Also, I'm sure measures are taken so that forum members don't feel alienated, but it's difficult for forums to be perfect.
Does happen. But I find it interesting to ask "
when do people call something an echo chamber"? In what context does this word get used and applied. People -- myself included -- call something an echo chamber when the conversation isn't going their way. So I look I look at reddit (until very recently) and say "it's an echo chamber where the only discussions allowed are about romances"
By nature, if an echo chamber exists and you hold a contrary opinion to whatever the status quo is within the echo chamber, trying to post your point of view inside of it is going to result in the conversation not going your way. Its kind of a requirement for an echo chamber to exist in the first place. It doesn't mean that all complaints about the conversion not going your way are automatically because its an echo chamber, but it does mean that you can't just automatically dismiss the claim that an echo chamber exists (or is on the way to existing) simply because the conversation is not going the way the person would like.
