“I think that having to meet the bar required to hit publish on a piece helped make my words civil to the person who wrote the original article.”

I think this is an excellent insight.

Little confession : replying on Twitter makes me often sad.

It happened to me quite a few times and still happen to me, hopefully less often, to read something I did not agree with, had the impulse to open my mouth and my fingers about it, hit “send”, then realize it makes no sense to be mad that people I’m voluntarily following have different opinions than I have. I would like to refrain myself to comment only when I can be helpful.

I am aware of it intellectually. But I’m human, too human, so facing a bit of friction when I’m about to write mean things is definitely helpful!