Past Simple or Past Perfect

Are you answering your own posts now?

No, I'm stating why Grant used the past perfect. I don't understand why Eric uses the simple past.

He wasn't recently eaten by Velociraptors? For whatever reason, his mind is referring back to simple past events: his interlocutors liked dinosaurs then and doesn't like them now.

But 'you liked dinsosaurs back then' is referring to a time before the past when he didn't like dinosaurs... I still don't understand

No, it doesn't-- it simply refers to a past time when the Grant liked them-- but he doesn't like them now. Eric is not considering Grant's very personal experience of being attacked; he is simply thinking about Grant's disliking dinosaurs now.

And why are you using an angry emoticon? It is not very pleasant from my viewpoint--like I'm being blamed. Emoticons are not good things; use

English 1b3Why is the past perfect used by Grant, but not by Eric?

The past perfect is often not necessary. Eric is just stating the past facts, and he doesn't need to use the past perfect. Grant uses the past perfect because what he has in mind is a past point in time, and he's talking about something that happened before that point in time he has in m

Thanks to both of you. I understand now that Eric doesn't need the past perfect because he doesn't consider the other point of reference (when dinosaurs tried to eat Grant). Sorry, MM, the anger face was in no way directed at you. Just using what was available to express how I felt for not understanding.