I think it’s odd that LessWrong spends so much time pondering whether or not it should exist! Most blogs don’t do that; most communities (online or otherwise) don’t do that. And if a person did that, you’d consider her rather abnormal. I view such discussion as noise; or at least a sidebar to more interesting topics.
Oh come on. You really think the fact that no one else is doing it means it is a bad idea?
And besides, Hacker News also has periodic controversies over the fact that some of its users read it instead of hacking. My guess is that any forum populated by ambitious people will have periodic controversies over whether it should be killed off/re-channeled/etc. And that’s a good thing.
If you sample from the set of online communities you know of, you’ll tend to see bigger and longer lasting ones more frequently than smaller and shorter-lasting ones. So by conforming with online communities you see, you’re making your community larger and longer-lasting. That’s not obviously a good thing.
Oh come on. You really think the fact that no one else is doing it means it is a bad idea?
And besides, Hacker News also has periodic controversies over the fact that some of its users read it instead of hacking. My guess is that any forum populated by ambitious people will have periodic controversies over whether it should be killed off/re-channeled/etc. And that’s a good thing.
That is a good point. Although generally I’m a fan of conformity; it’s often a sign that you’re doing things right.
Sure, but that should be a very weak heuristic.
If you sample from the set of online communities you know of, you’ll tend to see bigger and longer lasting ones more frequently than smaller and shorter-lasting ones. So by conforming with online communities you see, you’re making your community larger and longer-lasting. That’s not obviously a good thing.