There’s another issue here- a lot of my comments in reply (almost all of them) were upvoted. Some were upvoted quite high. I interpreted this as a sign that people were interested in the subject when it seems in retrospect I should have interpreted those upvotes more as “agree” or “well-argued” and not “want more”. Being more clear about what people mean when they upvote might help.
Note that this comment explicitly endorsing such replies has itself been moderately upvoted, which might reflect a more general endorsement of such replies.
So it’s possible that the upvotes really were expressing “I want more of this” from an interested minority, as you initially proposed. (And as you convinced me was plausible initially.)
There’s another issue here- a lot of my comments in reply (almost all of them) were upvoted. Some were upvoted quite high. I interpreted this as a sign that people were interested in the subject when it seems in retrospect I should have interpreted those upvotes more as “agree” or “well-argued” and not “want more”. Being more clear about what people mean when they upvote might help.
I’m not sure clarity is the issue.
Note that this comment explicitly endorsing such replies has itself been moderately upvoted, which might reflect a more general endorsement of such replies.
So it’s possible that the upvotes really were expressing “I want more of this” from an interested minority, as you initially proposed. (And as you convinced me was plausible initially.)