1. If there are errors, we can infer that those providing feedback were unable to identify them. 2. If the author was fallible enough to have made errors, perhaps they are are fallible enough to miss errors in input sourced from others.
What purpose does it serve? Given its often paired with “credit goes to..<list of names> it seems like an attempt that people providing feedback/input to a post are only exposed to upside from doing so, and the author takes all the downside reputation risk if the post is received poorly or exposed as flawed.
Maybe this works? It seems that as a capable reviewer/feedback haver, I might agree to offer feedback on a poor post written by a poor author, perhaps pointing out flaws, and my having given feedback on it might reflect poorly on my time allocation, but the bad output shouldn’t be assigned to me. Whereas if my name is attached to something quite good, it’s plausible that I contributed to that. I think because it’s easier to help a good post be great than to save a bad post.
But these inferences seem like they’re there to be made and aren’t changed by what an author might caveat at the start. I suppose the author might want to remind the reader of them rather than make them true through an utterance.
Upon reflection, I think (1) doesn’t hold. The reviewers/input makers might be aware of the errors but be unable to save the author from them. (2) That the reviewers made mistakes that have flowed into the piece seems all the more likely the worse the piece is overall, since we can update that the author wasn’t likely to catch them.
On the whole, I think I buy the premise that we can’t update too much negatively on reviewers and feedback givers from them having deigned to give feedback on something bad, though their time allocation is suspect. Maybe they’re bad at saying no, maybe they’re bad at dismissing people’s ideas aren’t that good, maybe they have hope for this person. Unclear. Upside I’m more willing to attribute.
Perhaps I would replace the “errors are my my own[, credit goes to]” with a reminder or pointer that these are the correct inferences to make. The words themselves don’t change them? Not sure, just musing here.
Edited To Add: I do think “errors are my own” is a very weird kind of social move that’s being performed in an epistemic contexts and I don’t like.
I think this makes sense as a reminder of a thing that is true anyway, as you somewhat already said; but also consider situations like:
A given reviewer was only reviewing for substance, and the error is stylistic, or vice versa;
A given reviewer was only reviewing for a subset of the subject matter;
A given reviewer was reviewing an early draft, and an error was introduced in a later draft.
In general a given reviewer will not necessarily have a real opportunity to catch any particular error, and usually a reader won’t have enough context to determine whether they did or didn’t. The author by contrast always bears responsibility for errors.
I think the point of the caveat is that it is polite to thank people who helped, but putting someone’s name on something implies they bear responsibility for it, and so the disclaimer is meant to keep the acknowledgement from being double-edged in an inappropriate way. Someone familiar with the writing and editing process will already in theory know all these things; someone who is not familiar maybe won’t be. But ultimately I see it as kind of a phatic courtesy which merely alludes to all this.
At first blush, I find this caveat amusing.
1. If there are errors, we can infer that those providing feedback were unable to identify them.
2. If the author was fallible enough to have made errors, perhaps they are are fallible enough to miss errors in input sourced from others.
What purpose does it serve? Given its often paired with “credit goes to..<list of names> it seems like an attempt that people providing feedback/input to a post are only exposed to upside from doing so, and the author takes all the downside reputation risk if the post is received poorly or exposed as flawed.
Maybe this works? It seems that as a capable reviewer/feedback haver, I might agree to offer feedback on a poor post written by a poor author, perhaps pointing out flaws, and my having given feedback on it might reflect poorly on my time allocation, but the bad output shouldn’t be assigned to me. Whereas if my name is attached to something quite good, it’s plausible that I contributed to that. I think because it’s easier to help a good post be great than to save a bad post.
But these inferences seem like they’re there to be made and aren’t changed by what an author might caveat at the start. I suppose the author might want to remind the reader of them rather than make them true through an utterance.
Upon reflection, I think (1) doesn’t hold. The reviewers/input makers might be aware of the errors but be unable to save the author from them. (2) That the reviewers made mistakes that have flowed into the piece seems all the more likely the worse the piece is overall, since we can update that the author wasn’t likely to catch them.
On the whole, I think I buy the premise that we can’t update too much negatively on reviewers and feedback givers from them having deigned to give feedback on something bad, though their time allocation is suspect. Maybe they’re bad at saying no, maybe they’re bad at dismissing people’s ideas aren’t that good, maybe they have hope for this person. Unclear. Upside I’m more willing to attribute.
Perhaps I would replace the “errors are my my own[, credit goes to]” with a reminder or pointer that these are the correct inferences to make. The words themselves don’t change them? Not sure, just musing here.
Edited To Add: I do think “errors are my own” is a very weird kind of social move that’s being performed in an epistemic contexts and I don’t like.
I think this makes sense as a reminder of a thing that is true anyway, as you somewhat already said; but also consider situations like:
A given reviewer was only reviewing for substance, and the error is stylistic, or vice versa;
A given reviewer was only reviewing for a subset of the subject matter;
A given reviewer was reviewing an early draft, and an error was introduced in a later draft.
In general a given reviewer will not necessarily have a real opportunity to catch any particular error, and usually a reader won’t have enough context to determine whether they did or didn’t. The author by contrast always bears responsibility for errors.
I think the point of the caveat is that it is polite to thank people who helped, but putting someone’s name on something implies they bear responsibility for it, and so the disclaimer is meant to keep the acknowledgement from being double-edged in an inappropriate way. Someone familiar with the writing and editing process will already in theory know all these things; someone who is not familiar maybe won’t be. But ultimately I see it as kind of a phatic courtesy which merely alludes to all this.
“Credit goes to A, B, and C. The errors are probably theirs too, and my error was to trust them.” Better? :D