[quoting Rieber, 21 Mar 97] Ian has certainly presented an interesting and creative case for the use/role of qualitative methods in social science research. Frankly, I'm quite surprised by the small number of comments.
I have been asking myself, why is the list so quiet? Come on "fellow lurkers," tell us, why are we so quiet?
For me, the silence has seemed, if not "deafening", at least eloquent.
Then I wondered:
I admit a sense of at first feeling "almost intimidated" by the content and quality of Ian's paper.
On a personal note, I am really a bit of a "lurker" on this list. The last time I actually hit the send button, I had written something with "tongue-partially-in-cheek". One response it elicited was from Allen Avner, whose work and contributions I have long admired. Interestingly, Allen did NOT detect the position of my tongue, (my fault?), and categorized me at almost the precise opposite of what my view was. He was forgiven, of course, since it was on the, and so he would not have known that he was "talking to a dog!!"
I'll be interested to hear other people's views on why.