Without controlling for anything, including topic selection. Worse general impression (which I can’t easily parse in terms of “per comment”), significant portion of low quality comments (comments that bad are rare here), and less high quality participation (but then, overall volume was smaller as well).
and less high quality participation (but then, overall volume was smaller as well).
Don’t underestimate the impact of voting mechanisms in their ability to screen out poorer-quality discussion. (As someone who is frequently downvoted on LW, I can state from personal experience that while this is often done persistently on the basis of individual sentiment rather than in terms of contribution to the dialogue, the impact is relatively equivalent either way: by seeing the opinions of others to the comments of others, we learn how to better sculpt our own comments.)
Worse total or worse per comment?
Worse considering what ideas were available at the time or worse regardless?
Without controlling for anything, including topic selection. Worse general impression (which I can’t easily parse in terms of “per comment”), significant portion of low quality comments (comments that bad are rare here), and less high quality participation (but then, overall volume was smaller as well).
Don’t underestimate the impact of voting mechanisms in their ability to screen out poorer-quality discussion. (As someone who is frequently downvoted on LW, I can state from personal experience that while this is often done persistently on the basis of individual sentiment rather than in terms of contribution to the dialogue, the impact is relatively equivalent either way: by seeing the opinions of others to the comments of others, we learn how to better sculpt our own comments.)