Richard, this really isn’t productive. Your clearly quite intelligent and clearly still have issues due to the dispute between you and Eliezer. It is likely that if you got over this, you could be an effective, efficient, and helpful critic of SI and their ideas. But right now, you are engaging in a uncivil behavior that isn’t endearing you to anyone while making emotionally heavy comparisons that make you sound strident.
Yes, but how much of that is due to the prior negative experience and fighting he’s had? It isn’t at all common for a troll to self-identify as such only after they’ve had bad experiences. Human motivations are highly malleable.
Er, yes. The fact that Loosemore is a professional AI researchers with a fair number of accomplishments and his general history strongly suggests that at least in his case he didn’t start his interaction with the intent to troll. His early actions on LW were positive and some were voted up.
His second comment on LW is here is from January and is at +8 (and I seem to recall was higher earlier). Two of his earlier comments from around the same time were at positive numbers but have since dipped below. It looks like at last one person went through and systematically downvoted his comments without regard to content.
I understand your point, but given that sentiment, the sentence “It isn’t at all common for a troll to self-identify as such only after they’ve had bad experiences” confuses me.
Right, as mentioned I meant uncommon. My point is that I don’t think Loosemore’s experience is that different from what often happens. At least in my experience, I’ve seen people who were more or less productive on one forum becomes effectively trolls elsewhere on the internet after having had bad experiences elsewhere. I think a lot of this is due to cognitive dissonance- people don’t like to think that they were being actively stupid or were effectively accidentally trolling, so they convince themselves that those were their goals all along.
It seems to me it would be more appropriate to ask Yudkowsky and LukeProg to retract the false accusations that Loosemore is a liar or dishonest, respectively.
Yes, that would probably be a step in the right direction also. I don’t know whether the accusation is false, but the evidence is at best extremely slim and altogether unhelpful. That someone didn’t remember a study a few years ago in the heat of the moment simply isn’t something worth getting worked up about.
Richard, this really isn’t productive. Your clearly quite intelligent and clearly still have issues due to the dispute between you and Eliezer. It is likely that if you got over this, you could be an effective, efficient, and helpful critic of SI and their ideas. But right now, you are engaging in a uncivil behavior that isn’t endearing you to anyone while making emotionally heavy comparisons that make you sound strident.
He doesn’t want to be “an effective, efficient, or helpful critic”. He’s here “for the lulz”, as he said in his comment above.
Yes, but how much of that is due to the prior negative experience and fighting he’s had? It isn’t at all common for a troll to self-identify as such only after they’ve had bad experiences. Human motivations are highly malleable.
I suspect you meant “isn’t at all uncommon,” though I think what you said might actually be true.
Er, yes. The fact that Loosemore is a professional AI researchers with a fair number of accomplishments and his general history strongly suggests that at least in his case he didn’t start his interaction with the intent to troll. His early actions on LW were positive and some were voted up.
His ‘early’ actions on LW were recent and largely negative, and one was voted up significantly (though I don’t see why—I voted that comment down).
At his best he’s been abrasive, confrontational, and rambling. Not someone worth engaging.
His second comment on LW is here is from January and is at +8 (and I seem to recall was higher earlier). Two of his earlier comments from around the same time were at positive numbers but have since dipped below. It looks like at last one person went through and systematically downvoted his comments without regard to content.
Yes, that’s the one I was referring to.
I understand your point, but given that sentiment, the sentence “It isn’t at all common for a troll to self-identify as such only after they’ve had bad experiences” confuses me.
Right, as mentioned I meant uncommon. My point is that I don’t think Loosemore’s experience is that different from what often happens. At least in my experience, I’ve seen people who were more or less productive on one forum becomes effectively trolls elsewhere on the internet after having had bad experiences elsewhere. I think a lot of this is due to cognitive dissonance- people don’t like to think that they were being actively stupid or were effectively accidentally trolling, so they convince themselves that those were their goals all along.
Ah, ok. Gotcha.
I agree that people often go from being productive participants to being unproductive, both for the reasons you describe and other reasons.
It seems to me it would be more appropriate to ask Yudkowsky and LukeProg to retract the false accusations that Loosemore is a liar or dishonest, respectively.
Yes, that would probably be a step in the right direction also. I don’t know whether the accusation is false, but the evidence is at best extremely slim and altogether unhelpful. That someone didn’t remember a study a few years ago in the heat of the moment simply isn’t something worth getting worked up about.