Anti skate and tonearm damping query

Skating force is a result of the offset of the polished area of the stylus in perspective of the groove wall. During the journey of the tonearm cross the record side this offset becomes zero 2 times - the zero tracking error point - and is depending on the tangential error angle (which changes all the time - becoming more and less again during the journey from and towards a zero error point).
Less derivation from tangential zero error = less skating force.
Skating force too is influenced by misalignment of the stylus in the groove and - to a VERY high degree - by the total contact area. Larger contact area (= modern line contact) is far less force on the groove wall with a given VTF as the skating is a by-result of VTF divided through contact area.

In summary:
- less derivation - offset - from tangential zero = less skating force.
- super precise vertical alignment of stylus in groove = lower skating force.
- larger contact area of stylus = lower skating force.
- old - conical or elliptical - stylus = higher skating force compared to line contact or similar.

MOST IMPORTANT: skating is NOT linear, but a force which gets higher, lower, zero and higher again.
Trying to compensate such a force with a linear anti-force is......... well....... no good idea.
"Correctly applied" anti-skating would fix the problem in 2 short moments of the record side and produce a new problem for most (98%...) of the rest.

Then there still is the (objective and empirical by observation ...) "fact" that most tonearm/cartridge- combo featuring very high VTF (2.5 grams +) do indeed produce LESS skating force .........

Thats why Ortofon did not care for antiskating at all in its 12" tonearms w/SPU cartridges and why my FR-66s runs smoothly w/ FR-7fspec. without any anti-skating.......

God bless America. Dertonarm has a right to express whatever ideas he feels are true ;-) and on any subject. Besides, they say laughter is the best medicine. So I say 'Good luck' to him!

Indeed - God bless america.
Especially so in our troubled times.
Thanks to him, that not all americans always go for the most simple model in everything......
In this sense - good luck to Nsgarch too.

some additional Info:

Antiskating .... The last analog secret

Hi Wes,
When I set VTA, i did it by ear only. Didn't even look to see if it was parallel. It's pretty easy to hear when you've got it right. The sound kind of pops into focus. Bass and treble become balanced. Bass is taut, not sloppy. Treble is clean, not strident. When you're off, either bass (too low at the tonearm base) or treble (too high) will dominate and exhibit the sloppy/strident characteristic.
Later on, I saw a post here recommending the 3 x 5 card method (Thanks, Stan). I tried it and found that my arm was exactly parallel to the record surface.
I haven't done it in a while, but I thought that turning the VTA wheel clockwise raises the arm at the pivot point.

Cheers.