I wouldn’t say Less Wrong needs a single leader, but in general good communities tend to have figures that can serve as “pillars of the community.” They tend to help group cohesion and provide good content. They can also serve the role of tutor for new people or by mapping out the direction a community can/should go in.
I tend to think of Eliezer, Yvain, and Gwern as the three pillars of our community. Their styles are all very different but they’re all enormously respected.
Yeah, and I’m much sadder that Yvain doesn’t post to LW as much as he used to. I’d love to hear from him about why. (At least I’d love it if he’d post links or crosspost.)
Yvain doesn’t post to LW because he finds it too stressful. Partly this the stress of the watching the number after posting, but mainly the uncertainty ahead of time about whether his posts are good enough or appropriate.
Added: I was probably thinking of this comment, but it doesn’t mention karma.
That seems analogous to the reasons EY stopped posting on LW, so maybe we can form a hypothesis about things that drive highly visible posts away from LW?
Writing a good article is a lot of work. When you write it for LW, you risk that (a) at the end your hard work will get downvoted, or (b) the thread will be off-topic or otherwise bad and you will have no control over it.
A solution is to post your articles somewhere else, and only submit a link with a short summary on LW. The disadvantage of this solution is that the debate is now split in two places: your blog and LW.
I like reading SSC as much as most people here, but Yvain doesn’t guide or lead conversations on LW. This is less true for the greater Aspiring Rationalist Community where SSC posts can cause plenty of ripples across the pond.
Can you (or someone else) list some other people they see as pillars? (Genuinely asking; I have trouble noticing users being frequently insightful because the lack of avatars.)
I wouldn’t say Less Wrong needs a single leader, but in general good communities tend to have figures that can serve as “pillars of the community.” They tend to help group cohesion and provide good content. They can also serve the role of tutor for new people or by mapping out the direction a community can/should go in.
I think we have some excellent pillars. For example, I see Yvain as a pillar, more than Eliezer.
I tend to think of Eliezer, Yvain, and Gwern as the three pillars of our community. Their styles are all very different but they’re all enormously respected.
I actually almost mentioned Gwern along with Yvain, so I’d tend to concur.
Yeah but he’s got his own blog.
Yeah, and I’m much sadder that Yvain doesn’t post to LW as much as he used to. I’d love to hear from him about why. (At least I’d love it if he’d post links or crosspost.)
Yvain doesn’t post to LW because he finds it too stressful. Partly this the stress of the watching the number after posting, but mainly the uncertainty ahead of time about whether his posts are good enough or appropriate.
Added: I was probably thinking of this comment, but it doesn’t mention karma.
That seems analogous to the reasons EY stopped posting on LW, so maybe we can form a hypothesis about things that drive highly visible posts away from LW?
Writing a good article is a lot of work. When you write it for LW, you risk that (a) at the end your hard work will get downvoted, or (b) the thread will be off-topic or otherwise bad and you will have no control over it.
A solution is to post your articles somewhere else, and only submit a link with a short summary on LW. The disadvantage of this solution is that the debate is now split in two places: your blog and LW.
It sounds different to me. I thought Eliezer didn’t like the comments.
Why does it matter where he writes?
I like reading SSC as much as most people here, but Yvain doesn’t guide or lead conversations on LW. This is less true for the greater Aspiring Rationalist Community where SSC posts can cause plenty of ripples across the pond.
Can you (or someone else) list some other people they see as pillars? (Genuinely asking; I have trouble noticing users being frequently insightful because the lack of avatars.)