Note that this review is not of the content that was nominated; nomination justifications strongly suggest that the comment suggestion, not the linkpost, was nominated.
I think the comments are in large part about the post, though, and it matters a lot whether the post is wrong or misleading.
I also think that, while, this post wouldn’t be eligible for the 2019 Review, an important point of the overall review process is still to have a coordinated time where everyone evaluates posts that have permeated the culture. I think this review is quite valuable along those lines.
That’s fair-I wasn’t disparaging the usefulness of the comment, just pointing out that the post itself is not actually what’s being reviewed, which is important, because it means that a low-quality post that sparks high-quality discussion isn’t disqualifying.
As I read it, two of the nominations are for the post itself, and one is for the comments...
...is what I was going to say until I checked and saw that this comment is a review, not a nomination. So one is for the post, and one for the comments.
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I agree with Raemon that even if the nomination is for the comments, evaluating the post is important. I actually started writing a section on the comments, but didn’t have that much to say, because they all seem predicated on the post stating something true about the world.
The highest-voted top-level comment, as well as Zvi’s position in this comment thread, seem to basically be considering the case where academia as a whole is net negative. I broadly agree with Zvi that it is not acceptable for an academic to go around faking data; if that were the norm in academia I expect I would think that academia was net negative and one could not justify joining it (unless you were going to buck the incentives). But… that isn’t the norm in academia. I feel like these comments are only making an important point if you actually believe the original post, which I don’t. The other comments seem to have only a little content, or to be on relatively tangential topics.
That’s a fair point-see my comment to Raemon. The way I read it, the mod consensus was that we can’t just curate the post, meaning that comments are essentially the only option. To me, this means an incorrect/low quality post isn’t disqualifying, which doesn’t decrease the utility of the review, just the frame under which it should be interpreted.
Note that this review is not of the content that was nominated; nomination justifications strongly suggest that the comment suggestion, not the linkpost, was nominated.
I think the comments are in large part about the post, though, and it matters a lot whether the post is wrong or misleading.
I also think that, while, this post wouldn’t be eligible for the 2019 Review, an important point of the overall review process is still to have a coordinated time where everyone evaluates posts that have permeated the culture. I think this review is quite valuable along those lines.
That’s fair-I wasn’t disparaging the usefulness of the comment, just pointing out that the post itself is not actually what’s being reviewed, which is important, because it means that a low-quality post that sparks high-quality discussion isn’t disqualifying.
As I read it, two of the nominations are for the post itself, and one is for the comments...
...is what I was going to say until I checked and saw that this comment is a review, not a nomination. So one is for the post, and one for the comments.
----
I agree with Raemon that even if the nomination is for the comments, evaluating the post is important. I actually started writing a section on the comments, but didn’t have that much to say, because they all seem predicated on the post stating something true about the world.
The highest-voted top-level comment, as well as Zvi’s position in this comment thread, seem to basically be considering the case where academia as a whole is net negative. I broadly agree with Zvi that it is not acceptable for an academic to go around faking data; if that were the norm in academia I expect I would think that academia was net negative and one could not justify joining it (unless you were going to buck the incentives). But… that isn’t the norm in academia. I feel like these comments are only making an important point if you actually believe the original post, which I don’t. The other comments seem to have only a little content, or to be on relatively tangential topics.
That’s a fair point-see my comment to Raemon. The way I read it, the mod consensus was that we can’t just curate the post, meaning that comments are essentially the only option. To me, this means an incorrect/low quality post isn’t disqualifying, which doesn’t decrease the utility of the review, just the frame under which it should be interpreted.