As someone who thought the OP was of poor quality, and who has had a very high opinion of SIAI and EY for a long time (and still has), I’ll say that that “Eliezer Yudkowsky facts” was indeed a lot worse. It was the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever read on this site. Most of those jokes aren’t even good.
“Eliezer Yudkowsky facts” is meant to be fun and entertainment. Do you agree that there is a large subjective component to what a person will think is fun, and that different people will be amused by different types of jokes? Obviously many people did find the post amusing (judging from its 47 votes), even if you didn’t. If those jokes were not posted, then something of real value would have been lost.
The situation with XiXiDu’s post’s is different because almost everyone seems to agree that it’s bad, and those who voted it up did so only to “stimulate discussion”. But if they didn’t vote up XiXiDu’s post, it’s quite likely that someone would eventually write up a better post asking similar questions and generating a higher quality discussion, so the outcome would likely be a net improvement. Or alternatively, those who wanted to “stimulate discussion” could have just looked in the LW archives and found all the discussion they could ever hope for.
If almost everyone thought it’s bad I would expect it to have much more downvotes than upvotes, even given the few people who voted it up to “stimulate discussion”. But you probably know more about statistics than I do, so never mind.
...it’s quite likely that someone would eventually write up a better post asking similar questions.
Before or after the SIAI build a FAI? I waited half a decade for any of those questions to be asked in the first place.
Or alternatively, those who wanted to “stimulate discussion” could have just looked in the LW archives and found all the discussion they could ever hope for.
Right, haven’t thought about that! I’ll be right back reading a few thousand comments to find some transparency.
Do you agree that there is a large subjective component to what a person will think is fun, and that different people will be amused by different types of jokes?
This is true. You might also be able to think of jokes that aren’t worth making even though a group of people would find then genuinely funny.
Can you please explain why you think those jokes shouldn’t have been made? I thought that making fun of authority figures is socially accepted in general, and in this case shows that we don’t take Eliezer too seriously. Do you disagree?
You seemed to seriously imply that Eliezer didn’t understand that the “facts” thread was a joke, while actually he was sarcastically joking by hinting at not getting the joke in the comment you replied to. I downvoted the comment to punish stupidity on LW (nothing personal, believe it or not, in other words it’s a one-step decision based on the comment alone and not on impression made by your other comments). Wei didn’t talk about that.
Making him the subject of a list like that looks plenty serious to me.
Beyond that, I don’t think there’s much that I can say. There’s a certain tone-deafness that’s rubbing me wrong in both the post and in this discussion, but exactly how that works is not something that I know how to convey with a couple of paragraphs of text.
Ok, I think I have an explanation for what’s going on here. Those of us “old hands” who went through the period where LW was OB, and Eliezer and Robin were the only main posters, saw Eliezer as initially having very high status, and considered the “facts” post as a fun way of taking him down a notch or two. Newcomers who arrived after LW became a community blog, on the other hand, don’t have the initial high status in mind, and instead see that post as itself assigning Eliezer a very high status, which they see as unjustified/weird/embarrassing. Makes sense, right?
(Voted parent up from −1, btw. That kind of report seems useful, even if the commenter couldn’t explain why he felt that way.)
I have a theory: all the jokes parse out to “Eliezer is brilliant, and we have a bunch of esoteric in-jokes to show how smart we are”. This isn’t making fun of an authority figure.
This doesn’t mean the article was a bad idea, or that I didn’t think it was funny. I also don’t think it’s strong evidence that LW and SIAI aren’t cults.
ETA: XiXiDu’s comment that this is the community making fun of itself seems correct.
Fact: Evaluating humor about Eliezer Yudkowsky always results in an interplay between levels of meta-humor such that the analysis itself is funny precisely when the original joke isn’t.
I was embarrassed by most of the facts. The one about my holding up a blank sheet of paper and saying “a blank map does not correspond to a blank territory” and thus creating the universe is one I still tell at parties.
That post was meant as a playful muck, it was a joke. It was not meant as a hostile attack. I’ve no idea how you and Aleksei can come to this conclusions about something many people thought was really funny, even outside of the community. That post actually helped to loosen the very stern sentiment of some people regarding you personally and the SIAI.
“Hey, those people are actually able to make fun of themselves, maybe they are not a cult after all...”
I should quit now and for some time stop participating on LW. I have to continue with my studies. I was only drawn here by the deletion incident. Replies and that it is fun to to argue have made me babble too much in the past few days.
Wow, I thought it was one of the best. By that post I actually introduced a philosopher (who teaches in Sweden), who’s been skeptic about EY, to read up on the MWI sequence and afterwards agree that EY is right.
I like that post—of course, few of the jokes are funny, but you read such a thing for the few gems they do contain. I think of it as hanging a lampshade (warning, TV tropes) on one of the problems with this website.
As someone who thought the OP was of poor quality, and who has had a very high opinion of SIAI and EY for a long time (and still has), I’ll say that that “Eliezer Yudkowsky facts” was indeed a lot worse. It was the most embarrassing thing I’ve ever read on this site. Most of those jokes aren’t even good.
“Eliezer Yudkowsky facts” is meant to be fun and entertainment. Do you agree that there is a large subjective component to what a person will think is fun, and that different people will be amused by different types of jokes? Obviously many people did find the post amusing (judging from its 47 votes), even if you didn’t. If those jokes were not posted, then something of real value would have been lost.
The situation with XiXiDu’s post’s is different because almost everyone seems to agree that it’s bad, and those who voted it up did so only to “stimulate discussion”. But if they didn’t vote up XiXiDu’s post, it’s quite likely that someone would eventually write up a better post asking similar questions and generating a higher quality discussion, so the outcome would likely be a net improvement. Or alternatively, those who wanted to “stimulate discussion” could have just looked in the LW archives and found all the discussion they could ever hope for.
If almost everyone thought it’s bad I would expect it to have much more downvotes than upvotes, even given the few people who voted it up to “stimulate discussion”. But you probably know more about statistics than I do, so never mind.
Before or after the SIAI build a FAI? I waited half a decade for any of those questions to be asked in the first place.
Right, haven’t thought about that! I’ll be right back reading a few thousand comments to find some transparency.
This is true. You might also be able to think of jokes that aren’t worth making even though a group of people would find then genuinely funny.
I agree with Aleksei about the Facts article.
Can you please explain why you think those jokes shouldn’t have been made? I thought that making fun of authority figures is socially accepted in general, and in this case shows that we don’t take Eliezer too seriously. Do you disagree?
Hey, I said the same, why was he upvoted for it and I downvoted? Oh wait, it’s Wei_Dai, never mind.
Please downvote this comment as I’m adding noise while being hostile to someone who adds valuable insights to the discussion.
You seemed to seriously imply that Eliezer didn’t understand that the “facts” thread was a joke, while actually he was sarcastically joking by hinting at not getting the joke in the comment you replied to. I downvoted the comment to punish stupidity on LW (nothing personal, believe it or not, in other words it’s a one-step decision based on the comment alone and not on impression made by your other comments). Wei didn’t talk about that.
I guess after so many comments implying things I never meant to say I was a bit aggrieved. Never mind.
Making him the subject of a list like that looks plenty serious to me.
Beyond that, I don’t think there’s much that I can say. There’s a certain tone-deafness that’s rubbing me wrong in both the post and in this discussion, but exactly how that works is not something that I know how to convey with a couple of paragraphs of text.
Ok, I think I have an explanation for what’s going on here. Those of us “old hands” who went through the period where LW was OB, and Eliezer and Robin were the only main posters, saw Eliezer as initially having very high status, and considered the “facts” post as a fun way of taking him down a notch or two. Newcomers who arrived after LW became a community blog, on the other hand, don’t have the initial high status in mind, and instead see that post as itself assigning Eliezer a very high status, which they see as unjustified/weird/embarrassing. Makes sense, right?
(Voted parent up from −1, btw. That kind of report seems useful, even if the commenter couldn’t explain why he felt that way.)
I have a theory: all the jokes parse out to “Eliezer is brilliant, and we have a bunch of esoteric in-jokes to show how smart we are”. This isn’t making fun of an authority figure.
This doesn’t mean the article was a bad idea, or that I didn’t think it was funny. I also don’t think it’s strong evidence that LW and SIAI aren’t cults.
ETA: XiXiDu’s comment that this is the community making fun of itself seems correct.
Fact: Evaluating humor about Eliezer Yudkowsky always results in an interplay between levels of meta-humor such that the analysis itself is funny precisely when the original joke isn’t.
They are very good examples of the genre (Chuck Norris-style jokes). I for one could not contain my levity.
I was embarrassed by most of the facts. The one about my holding up a blank sheet of paper and saying “a blank map does not correspond to a blank territory” and thus creating the universe is one I still tell at parties.
That post was meant as a playful muck, it was a joke. It was not meant as a hostile attack. I’ve no idea how you and Aleksei can come to this conclusions about something many people thought was really funny, even outside of the community. That post actually helped to loosen the very stern sentiment of some people regarding you personally and the SIAI.
“Hey, those people are actually able to make fun of themselves, maybe they are not a cult after all...”
What, why are you talking about a hostile attack?
Of course I didn’t feel that it would be that. It’s quite the opposite, it felt to me like communicating an unhealthy air of hero worship.
Then I have been the one to completely misinterpret what you said. Apologize, I’m not good at this.
I’ve said it before the OP but failed miserably:
I should quit now and for some time stop participating on LW. I have to continue with my studies. I was only drawn here by the deletion incident. Replies and that it is fun to to argue have made me babble too much in the past few days.
Back to being lurker. Thanks.
Wow, I thought it was one of the best. By that post I actually introduced a philosopher (who teaches in Sweden), who’s been skeptic about EY, to read up on the MWI sequence and afterwards agree that EY is right.
I like that post—of course, few of the jokes are funny, but you read such a thing for the few gems they do contain. I think of it as hanging a lampshade (warning, TV tropes) on one of the problems with this website.