the comments feel nitpicky in a way that isn’t actually helpful
If you see a comment that is technically correct but nitpicky and unhelpful, you could reply “this is technically correct, but nitpicky and unhelpful”. Downvoting correct statements just looks bad.
the point it was making just… didn’t seem very relevant.
I think there is a more charitable reading of TAG’s comment. Not only are there places in the internet aspiring to find the truth, there are, in fact, very few places that are not aspiring to find it. The point isn’t that there are more places like LW. The point is that “truth seeking” isn’t the distinguishing characteristic of LW.
and that you have to defend your points against a hostile-seeming crowd rather than collaboratively building something.
I honestly believe that attacking people’s points is a good way to learn something. I don’t know what you mean by “collaboratively building something”, I’d appreciate examples where that has happened in the past. I suspect that you’re overestimating how valuable or persistent this “something” is.
increase the latent hostility of the thread, and I think people don’t appreciate enough how bad that is for discourse.
I don’t think you’ve provided strong arguments that it actually is bad for discourse. Yes, demon threads don’t usually go anywhere, but regular threads don’t usually go anywhere either. And people can actually learn from demon threads, even if they’re not willing to admit it right away. I certainly have.
Not only are there places in the internet aspiring to find the truth, there are, in fact, very few places that are not aspiring to find it.
?? If you look at the Alexa top 50 sites for the US, how many of them are about aspiring to find the truth? I count between 3 and 4 (Google, Wikipedia, and Bing for sure, Wikia maybe).
I think you’re confusing “aspiring to find truth” with “finding truth”. Your crackpot uncle who writes facebook posts about how Trump eats babies isn’t doing it because he loves lies and hates truth, he does it because he has poor epistemic hygiene.
So in this view almost every discussion forum and almost every newspaper is doing their best to find the truth, even if they have some other goals as well.
Also, of course, I’m only counting places that deal with anything like propositions at all, and excluding things like jokes, memes, porn, shopping, etc, which is a large fraction of the internet.
If you see a comment that is technically correct but nitpicky and unhelpful, you could reply “this is technically correct, but nitpicky and unhelpful”. Downvoting correct statements just looks bad.
I think there is a more charitable reading of TAG’s comment. Not only are there places in the internet aspiring to find the truth, there are, in fact, very few places that are not aspiring to find it. The point isn’t that there are more places like LW. The point is that “truth seeking” isn’t the distinguishing characteristic of LW.
I honestly believe that attacking people’s points is a good way to learn something. I don’t know what you mean by “collaboratively building something”, I’d appreciate examples where that has happened in the past. I suspect that you’re overestimating how valuable or persistent this “something” is.
I don’t think you’ve provided strong arguments that it actually is bad for discourse. Yes, demon threads don’t usually go anywhere, but regular threads don’t usually go anywhere either. And people can actually learn from demon threads, even if they’re not willing to admit it right away. I certainly have.
?? If you look at the Alexa top 50 sites for the US, how many of them are about aspiring to find the truth? I count between 3 and 4 (Google, Wikipedia, and Bing for sure, Wikia maybe).
You forgot amazon.com and walmart.com, which have the tightest instrumental rationality feedback loops of them all.
</banter>
I think you’re confusing “aspiring to find truth” with “finding truth”. Your crackpot uncle who writes facebook posts about how Trump eats babies isn’t doing it because he loves lies and hates truth, he does it because he has poor epistemic hygiene.
So in this view almost every discussion forum and almost every newspaper is doing their best to find the truth, even if they have some other goals as well.
Also, of course, I’m only counting places that deal with anything like propositions at all, and excluding things like jokes, memes, porn, shopping, etc, which is a large fraction of the internet.