It’s true that articles pass around the rationalist network, and if you happen to be in it, you’re likely to see some such articles. But if you have something that you’d specifically want the rationalist community to see, and you’re not already in the network, it’s very hard.
Some time back, I had a friend ask me how to promote their book which they thought might be of interest to the rationalist community. My answer was basically “you could start out by posting about it on LW, but not that many people read LW anymore so after that I can help you out by leveraging my position in the community”. If they didn’t know me, or another insider, they’d have a lot harder time even figuring out what they needed to do.
“The rationalist network” is composed of a large number of people and sites, scattered over Tumblr blogs, Facebook groups and profiles, various individual blogs, and so on. If you want to speak to the whole network, you can’t just make a post on LW anymore. Instead you need to spend time to figure out who the right people are, get to know them, and hope that you either get into the inner circle, or that enough insiders agree with your message and take up spreading it.
Heck, even though I count myself as “an insider”, I’ve also frequently wanted a way to specifically address the “rationalist community” about various topics, and then not knowing how. I mean, a lot of people in the community read my Facebook posts so I could just post something on Facebook, but that’s not quite the same thing.
It’s true that articles pass around the rationalist network, and if you happen to be in it, you’re likely to see some such articles. But if you have something that you’d specifically want the rationalist community to see, and you’re not already in the network, it’s very hard.
Some time back, I had a friend ask me how to promote their book which they thought might be of interest to the rationalist community. My answer was basically “you could start out by posting about it on LW, but not that many people read LW anymore so after that I can help you out by leveraging my position in the community”. If they didn’t know me, or another insider, they’d have a lot harder time even figuring out what they needed to do.
“The rationalist network” is composed of a large number of people and sites, scattered over Tumblr blogs, Facebook groups and profiles, various individual blogs, and so on. If you want to speak to the whole network, you can’t just make a post on LW anymore. Instead you need to spend time to figure out who the right people are, get to know them, and hope that you either get into the inner circle, or that enough insiders agree with your message and take up spreading it.
Heck, even though I count myself as “an insider”, I’ve also frequently wanted a way to specifically address the “rationalist community” about various topics, and then not knowing how. I mean, a lot of people in the community read my Facebook posts so I could just post something on Facebook, but that’s not quite the same thing.