user-1: Is asking for general feedback on my posting, OK on meta?
I like this site, but I worry I come off a more authoritative than I am, in my tone?

user254: If I compare our answers to this question for example, my answers references two other authors and yours doesn't.
Therefore yours "comes off as sounding more authoritative" because you're literally the author (instead of quoting or deferring to another author).
OTOH this site allows people to answer without references -- What about providing sources?
Your not doing so might make you sound as if you think you're expert -- or as if you think the reader is an expert who doesn't need a reference, e.g. they can understand a sentence like,

People are born from their karma: that is what dependent origination teaches anyway, the abhidhamma version at least.

And perhaps you're right, that the OP can understand that.

Also I tend to qualify what I say. Instead of "X and Y" I might write, "I think that X and Y", or "I suppose", "maybe", "perhaps", "I guess", "it may be that", "it might", and so on.
I do that to avoid misleading people (I can't guarantee that X and Y but, I can tell you, it's true that I think so).
It may be that my speech goes too far in the opposite extreme -- i.e. to avoid sounding too authoritative, I use too many circumlocutions.

-1: <p>Is asking for general feedback on my posting, OK on meta?</p>
<p>I like this site, but I worry I come off a more authoritative than I am, in my tone?</p>
 254: <p>If I compare our answers to <a href="https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/q/39719/254">this question</a> for example, my answers references two other authors and yours doesn't.</p>
<p>Therefore yours &quot;comes off as sounding more authoritative&quot; because you're literally the author (instead of quoting or deferring to another author).</p>
<p>OTOH this site allows people to answer without references -- <a href="https://buddhism.meta.stackexchange.com/q/21/254">What about providing sources?</a></p>
<p>Your not doing so might make you sound as if you think you're expert -- or as if you think the reader is an expert who doesn't need a reference, e.g. they can understand a sentence like,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>People are born from their karma: that is what dependent origination teaches anyway, the abhidhamma version at least.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And perhaps you're right, that the OP can understand that.</p>
<hr />
<p>Also I tend to qualify what I say. Instead of &quot;X and Y&quot; I might write, &quot;I think that X and Y&quot;, or &quot;I suppose&quot;, &quot;maybe&quot;, &quot;perhaps&quot;, &quot;I guess&quot;, &quot;it may be that&quot;, &quot;it might&quot;, and so on.</p>
<p>I do that to avoid misleading people (I can't guarantee that X and Y but, I can tell you, it's true that I think so).</p>
<p><strong>It may be that</strong> my speech goes too far in the opposite extreme -- i.e. to avoid sounding too authoritative, I use too many circumlocutions.</p>
