Yeeesh. But this is one of those rare cases where you should read the comments. The author of the post doesn’t get it, but plenty of the commenters do. Keep laughing, Dan!

Thanks for telling me to read the replies — I had not, and I really should have. I appreciate it!

the majority of the folks replying come to your defense. most of us get what you're doing.

Thanks to my maxim of Never Read The Replies (Except On My Own Site, Where It Is My Duty) — a rule I only rare keep — I hadn't read the replies! That is heartening to see, haha.

This was wonderful to read. It was also insightful. I know a reasonable amount of the art history of Renaissance Florence, and some about the church politics. But I knew nothing of the cloth finishers guild. Even when discussing a single city in a single time period, there is so much to know.

I too hope to someday transcend over the difference between olives and cloth finishers guilds

These subtle distinctions aren't for everyone.

I mean I immediately thought of this guy so what does that say about me?

Hey, he's out there living his best life!

Maybe that whole time he was ALSO just trying to discuss olives or textiles.

I can identify with being the pillock who doesn't get a joke, but to dump on someone after making that mistake? Ouch. And to use a condescending tone when doing said dumping? Now it's moved into total dick move.

I'm not saying it would solve *everything*, but hammering into every person's mind that they can simply not engage with harmless things they don't enjoy and leave them for people who do would create paradise.

Well he certainly has your number* *not remotely a number, thanks for playing

I love how people who complain about pretentiousness this often always, *always* lie about how much they read. Borges, Camus, Proust, etc. exist, and they have loops that make the most bloviating professor seem succinct, but we don't call them pretentious...

...because pretentious is *so much about pretending* and so little about anything else. Pretention is Dogberry's "arrest these pogroms." Pretending. You know, like saying you read a ton and that one paragraph somehow broke your seasoned brain. Write on, Dan. Fuck these people.

Sincerely, I'm just tickled. I really don't mind if my writing doesn't work for somebody, and maybe my favorite thing about the internet is how self-selecting it can be. If you don't enjoy reading what I write, truly, there's probably a better fit out there. Go and find it! Or make it yourself!

It's also delicious that you have a cult of obtuse detractors who still click through to look at your articles during their one wild and precious life because you live rent free in their heads. 😊

It is so funny to me. There are a lot of people I don't like. My solution is that I don't interact with them. It's so easy!

This is purely anecdotal but (imo) you aren't as (terminally) online as the Area Board Game Guy or Area Redditor, has far more invested in the diminishing returns that are Hating Things On The Internet™

One of the reasons I love board games is because they, as a hobby, work to defy the parasociality that's come to define our age. I love chatting with people, even online. But the beauty of the table is that we have to sit at it together, face to face, and come to know one another.

I tell people, “I’m not sure that I actually like playing board games. But I know I like hanging out with my friends and family in the way that the board game experience provides. I do like *designing* board games.”

I play board games more for the company than anything else, and it's why the experience is fun for me even when I lose. That said, there are some games I want to play again and others I do not.

Oh, I have all sorts of opinions about board game design and development. But, unless a game is just too long, I’ll typically be okay with playing it again.

To me, this was a joke *at my expense*, both when I wrote it and when it came up at game night! My wife called me a dork for knowing about the Calimala AND for assuming any other human being would also know about it. Everybody at the table laughed at me! I laughed at me!

And, look, it's fine if you think I'm a pretentious ass. I also think I'm a pretentious ass. But I'm a pretentious ass who doesn't take himself very seriously. There are many things I take seriously, including the value of play. But me? My little site? Nah. I'm just having fun out there.

UPDATE: Someone said I should read the comments, so I did. And, wow, it's nice that so many people said kind things down below! Honestly, that's very nice. But don't worry about me. Life is hard enough without feeling the need to defend some random dude on the internet. Never pile on on my behalf.

your stuff is educational, even! i had never heard of the Arte di Calamari before reading your review. had no idea cephalopods were so politicallu influential in renaissance Florence

So yummy!

I'm "Haladras" there. Not *just* on your behalf, to be clear. I may have given up on doing that job myself, but I want others to do it, too. I know from experience that these loudmouths get to typing first, well before an audience does. They killed any love *I* had for critique, certainly.

If this sort of thing is shut down, that's room for a future Dan(-adjacent) writer to breathe, and hopefully they'll fare better than I. Let them think twice, and then those who can love this approach will see their next critical piece more clearly, before it's downvoted to obscurity by trolls.

If we were trying to do you a personal favor, maybe it would be wrong, but we're not. Furthermore, we're quite restrained given the post's overreach. We're being a hell of a lot kinder than they were.

the "are you a grad student" comment got a good laugh out of me

I hadn't seen that, but yeah, now I'm laughing at that one too.

The kind of person who declares you an unaware pseudo-intellectual and the kind of person who describes a mid-weight euro as 'entry level' to new gamers is a circle.

Person whose name is random letters/numbers says you have potential!

It's really relentless. This comment section went rather well, actually.

And I thought e37d93eeb23335dc was my friend!!

Never trust somebody that has 5 threes in his name.

Seriously? 😳 Keep fighting the good fight, Dan💪

Those are some good olives 🫒

I plan to pivot into reviewing olives.

Dan Thurot, always towering over his game group

THEY WILL SUBMIT (YOU TOO)

Almost as tall as 6'3", 228 lb President Trump! Of course, he has a tendency to get taller when this happens.