People who read and critique academic papers but aren’t themselves active in academic research and publishing project an odd vibe.
Some mix of nerd fandom and critical theory types commenting on random stuff. I’m kinda glad this community didn’t exist when I was in academia.
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I don’t mind it. Mostly I ignore the fandom commentary. It’s like yelp reviews.
If the activity surfaces a paper that seems to have an insight I appreciate, I read it.

