There’s one major reason a blog will never be strictly superior to facebook: the dropoff rate for people clicking through to read your blog is large. (For example, I generally do not click through to read blogposts while scanning facebook – I only read whatever quotes people include on FB itself, and this is quite common).
People are not enacting the algorithm “scan FB, then click through to things and read them.” People are enacting the algorithm “scan and comment on FB.” The trivial inconvenience is huge.
If I want to comment on Eliezer’s blog, it’s worse: I have to sign up on that blog. And I also don’t trust most people people to have clicked through to read the comments on that blog because I know most people are only reading comments on Facebook. This happens quite frequently with rationalist blogs: all the substantive discussion ends up happening on the corresponding FB post, not on the blog itself.
(It’ll be necessary to sign up on the blog, since Eliezer specifically wants to be able to block people easily)
It’s noteworthy that Eliezer has multiple other blogs (OvercomingBias, LessWrong, and his own yudwosky.net, and a tumblr). He uses FB. I think it’s quite unlikely this is because he accidentally ended up on FB.
There’s one additional important feature FB has that most other blogs do not: casual feel. the textbox for entering things is small, the fontsize is small, the font is sans-serif and simple, the site is cluttered so your post doesn’t look like the most important thing on the page. All of these translate into a strong signal of “this is low effort and is not to be judged as a high effort thing.”
This is extremely important – it means I can actually get things written that I wouldn’t otherwise write. It’s hard to do with a dedicated blogsite (there may be wordpress themes that produce this effect)
There’s one major reason a blog will never be strictly superior to facebook: the dropoff rate for people clicking through to read your blog is large.
Cross-posting full text eliminates this disadvantage.
If I want to comment on Eliezer’s blog, it’s worse: I have to sign up on that blog. … (It’ll be necessary to sign up on the blog, since Eliezer specifically wants to be able to block people easily)
This is not true. Simply set up Facebook login for the blog; set that as the only available login method; and then block whoever you want.
Even if it were true, I did not say it was necessary to enable commenting on the blog; let people comment on Facebook only, if you like.
This happens quite frequently with rationalist blogs: all the substantive discussion ends up happening on the corresponding FB post, not on the blog itself.
While I do think this is bad, it does nothing whatever to reduce the advantages of posting the content itself on the blog.
It is also possible (and not very difficult at all, though not turnkey) to enable Facebook comments associated with a Facebook-shared blog post to also appear under your blog—thus letting people who comment on your blog, also see comments that other people have posted on Facebook.
[Eliezer] uses FB. I think it’s quite unlikely this is because he accidentally ended up on FB.
I agree that it’s unlikely that Eliezer accidentally ended up on Facebook. But I think it’s quite a bit more likely that Eliezer thoughtlessly ended up on Facebook—because he did not think about the tradeoffs, because he did not care to consider the pros and cons, because he made no attempt to search for better solutions. (And because no one else knew or cared enough to point them out to him.)
There’s one additional important feature FB has that most other blogs do not: casual feel. The textbox for entering things is small, the fontsize is small, the font is sans-serif and simple, the site is cluttered so your post doesn’t look like the most important thing on the page. All of these translate into a strong signal of “this is low effort and is not to be judged as a high effort thing.”
I am very skeptical of this sort of claim, truth be told. It feels very much like a post-hoc, just-so-story, sort of explanation. I do not expect the majority of such claims to survive rigorous testing.
But even if we accept what you say here, it is obviously easy enough to duplicate that effect by selecting an appropriate theme/layout for a blog. Once again, Eliezer Yudkowsky, of all people, is uniquely positioned to call upon a great quantity of technical and design talent to create bespoke solutions for him, for problems of this nature.
There’s one major reason a blog will never be strictly superior to facebook: the dropoff rate for people clicking through to read your blog is large. (For example, I generally do not click through to read blogposts while scanning facebook – I only read whatever quotes people include on FB itself, and this is quite common).
People are not enacting the algorithm “scan FB, then click through to things and read them.” People are enacting the algorithm “scan and comment on FB.” The trivial inconvenience is huge.
If I want to comment on Eliezer’s blog, it’s worse: I have to sign up on that blog. And I also don’t trust most people people to have clicked through to read the comments on that blog because I know most people are only reading comments on Facebook. This happens quite frequently with rationalist blogs: all the substantive discussion ends up happening on the corresponding FB post, not on the blog itself.
(It’ll be necessary to sign up on the blog, since Eliezer specifically wants to be able to block people easily)
It’s noteworthy that Eliezer has multiple other blogs (OvercomingBias, LessWrong, and his own yudwosky.net, and a tumblr). He uses FB. I think it’s quite unlikely this is because he accidentally ended up on FB.
There’s one additional important feature FB has that most other blogs do not: casual feel. the textbox for entering things is small, the fontsize is small, the font is sans-serif and simple, the site is cluttered so your post doesn’t look like the most important thing on the page. All of these translate into a strong signal of “this is low effort and is not to be judged as a high effort thing.”
This is extremely important – it means I can actually get things written that I wouldn’t otherwise write. It’s hard to do with a dedicated blogsite (there may be wordpress themes that produce this effect)
Cross-posting full text eliminates this disadvantage.
This is not true. Simply set up Facebook login for the blog; set that as the only available login method; and then block whoever you want.
Even if it were true, I did not say it was necessary to enable commenting on the blog; let people comment on Facebook only, if you like.
While I do think this is bad, it does nothing whatever to reduce the advantages of posting the content itself on the blog.
It is also possible (and not very difficult at all, though not turnkey) to enable Facebook comments associated with a Facebook-shared blog post to also appear under your blog—thus letting people who comment on your blog, also see comments that other people have posted on Facebook.
I agree that it’s unlikely that Eliezer accidentally ended up on Facebook. But I think it’s quite a bit more likely that Eliezer thoughtlessly ended up on Facebook—because he did not think about the tradeoffs, because he did not care to consider the pros and cons, because he made no attempt to search for better solutions. (And because no one else knew or cared enough to point them out to him.)
I am very skeptical of this sort of claim, truth be told. It feels very much like a post-hoc, just-so-story, sort of explanation. I do not expect the majority of such claims to survive rigorous testing.
But even if we accept what you say here, it is obviously easy enough to duplicate that effect by selecting an appropriate theme/layout for a blog. Once again, Eliezer Yudkowsky, of all people, is uniquely positioned to call upon a great quantity of technical and design talent to create bespoke solutions for him, for problems of this nature.