The thing is we dont know eachothers identities here. If the thread is about the right way to do something in gamedev and you tell me you used to work at Big Game Company, and the information you provide seems sound, it is truly evidence in favor of the value of your information. It need not be claimed explicitly "and they work on this there, therefore I also have valid experience there, and as such have experience in the domain" because we assume thats understood already.
People throw around appeal to authority as if relationship or prior experience with any institution or association with any well known name could not be causal evidence. And just throw the term out if they see a title, like it erases the strength of a position by mere utterance.
If somebody told me John Carmack said to use such and such spatial indexing structure for this case, it is good information. There is a sincere practicality here. Not just manipulation or weak rhetoric.
A good place to use it would be when someone with illegitimate authority is called upon, or the surrounding information is so weak or even untrue that it contradicts the association with said qualified authority.
Saying “you should do this because John Carmack did it” would absolutely be an appeal to authority. The fact that sometimes you really should do that thing doesn’t somehow negate the fact that the rhetorical strategy being used is ~”you should do this because an authority on the matter did it”.
The rhetorical strategy “appeal to authority” doesn’t have the conditions you’re implying about the proposed hypothesis being weak, or about the authority being illegitimate.
People throw around appeal to authority as if relationship or prior experience with any institution or association with any well known name could not be causal evidence. And just throw the term out if they see a title, like it erases the strength of a position by mere utterance.
If somebody told me John Carmack said to use such and such spatial indexing structure for this case, it is good information. There is a sincere practicality here. Not just manipulation or weak rhetoric.
A good place to use it would be when someone with illegitimate authority is called upon, or the surrounding information is so weak or even untrue that it contradicts the association with said qualified authority.