Here's his reasoning: https://twitter.com/moxie/status/1211443530335281153

> I just prefer to present something as part of a conversation that's happening in a place, rather than a webinar that I'm broadcasting forever to the world.

To me it sounds an awful lot like not wanting to be scrutinized or held accountable for what he says.

I also find this rather disappointing as it excludes anyone who is unable, for whatever reason, to be at his talks from hearing what he has to say. Given how influential he's been in this domain, this sadness me quite a bit.

> I have less faith in the internet as a place where a conversation can happen

This feels a bit ironic, given he's built an enterprise on enabling conversations to happen on the internet, though arguably only with a limited set of people.

> , and the timelessness of it decontextualizes.

Not quite sure what that's supposed to mean. Perhaps it's a language barrier thing, but I can't parse that into something sensible.

In addition to writing on the Signal blog and on Twitter, he's on HN regularly addressing questions about what he's doing; you've had plenty of opportunities to engage with him directly. This seems like a swipe you're making for its own sake.

This seems kind of silly to me because:

1. Does the same thing not also apply to the blog post he authored, which contains the exact same points?

2. Is a talk where you get a big stage to preach your opinion from and take two questions at the end really the best way to do this? As opposed to say, a panel discussion or similar.

He wants to have a conversation where he can use shorthand that won't be turned against him later through decontextualized misunderstanding. This doesn't sound unreasonable to me at all. In fact, it's something we take advantage of frequently as individuals.

If I were a high-profile person recorded for everything I did I'd almost certainly be raked over the coals for "Just kill all the apaches. They are fucking useless." when talking to a friend as we hacked on apache running in forked mode and spawned a million processes that can't respond. This is why I use nginx now. Much safer.

To save people a click, here is a line taken ironically out of context:

"I have less faith in the internet as a place where a conversation can happen, and the timelessness of it decontextualizes."