I disagree with the implications that the masses (i.e. at least a majority of web users) have voted for facebook (i.e. actively chose it when an alternative with the same featureset was available) and that, even if this is true, it will not or cannot be changed.
I also note that the diaspora is not primarily located on facebook. Wordpress-like blogs and tumblr seem to be two strong focuses.
Finally, I don’t have a strong sense that “the masses” of whom it might be said that they actually prefer Facebook content to independent websites, are typical Rationalist Diaspora members, or even typical potential new recruits. Do you?
I love to hate Facebook. Facebook posters are pretty much my notion of “the outgroup of Good Web Users and Blog Authors”. But what’s the evidence for what you say?
How many people besides EY are posting on facebook? I’m not saying nobody does, but it seems to me to be a minority. This may be just a sampling bias, because I dislike facebook, or because ‘affiliated rationalist diaspora blog’ lists don’t include Facebook posters. Do you have quantitative data?
I’m not saying that the “rationalist tribe” has migrated to Facebook. It hasn’t. The original quote was “many of the technical challenges of the diaspora were solved problems” and Facebook does indeed solve many diaspora problems—for example, dispersed extended families and/or clans find Facebook a very useful tool to keep in touch and coordinate things.
This partially goes to the same point of avoiding overreach—devising a better way of uniting a diaspora is a much harder task than making LW better.
At least one of us misunderstood the other, but it doesn’t seem worth the time to figure out why and where. We agree that the rationalist diaspora/tribe hasn’t mostly migrated to Facebook.
This partially goes to the same point of avoiding overreach—devising a better way of uniting a diaspora is a much harder task than making LW better.
If you make LW sufficiently better, it may unite the diaspora behind it. If it doesn’t, then is it really worth our while to make LW better, at least with proposals of huge changes like this one?
Facebook.
Yes, it’s quite unfortunate, but that is what the masses have voted for :-/
I disagree with the implications that the masses (i.e. at least a majority of web users) have voted for facebook (i.e. actively chose it when an alternative with the same featureset was available) and that, even if this is true, it will not or cannot be changed.
I also note that the diaspora is not primarily located on facebook. Wordpress-like blogs and tumblr seem to be two strong focuses.
Finally, I don’t have a strong sense that “the masses” of whom it might be said that they actually prefer Facebook content to independent websites, are typical Rationalist Diaspora members, or even typical potential new recruits. Do you?
I love to hate Facebook. Facebook posters are pretty much my notion of “the outgroup of Good Web Users and Blog Authors”. But what’s the evidence for what you say?
And where is EY posting nowadays?
How many people besides EY are posting on facebook? I’m not saying nobody does, but it seems to me to be a minority. This may be just a sampling bias, because I dislike facebook, or because ‘affiliated rationalist diaspora blog’ lists don’t include Facebook posters. Do you have quantitative data?
About a billion and a half people?
I’m not saying that the “rationalist tribe” has migrated to Facebook. It hasn’t. The original quote was “many of the technical challenges of the diaspora were solved problems” and Facebook does indeed solve many diaspora problems—for example, dispersed extended families and/or clans find Facebook a very useful tool to keep in touch and coordinate things.
This partially goes to the same point of avoiding overreach—devising a better way of uniting a diaspora is a much harder task than making LW better.
At least one of us misunderstood the other, but it doesn’t seem worth the time to figure out why and where. We agree that the rationalist diaspora/tribe hasn’t mostly migrated to Facebook.
If you make LW sufficiently better, it may unite the diaspora behind it. If it doesn’t, then is it really worth our while to make LW better, at least with proposals of huge changes like this one?