I don’t have especially strong opinions about what to do here. But, for the curious, I’ve had run ins with both Said and Duncan on LW and elsewhere, so perhaps this is useful background information to folks outside the moderation team look at this who aren’t already aware (I know they are aware of basically everything I have to say here because I’ve talked to some of them about these situations).
Also, before I say anything else, I’ve not had extensive bad interactions with either Said or Duncan recently. Maybe that’s because I’ve been writing a book instead of making posts of the sort I used to make? Either way, this is a bit historical and is based on interactions from 1+ years ago.
I’ve faced the brunt of Said’s comments before. I’ve spent a lot of very long threads discussing things with him and finally gave up because it felt like talking to a brick wall. I have a soft ban on Said on my posts and comments, where I’ve committed to only reply to him once and not reply to his replies to me, since it seems to go in circles and not get anywhere. I often feel frustrated with Said because I feel like I’ve put in a lot of work in a conversation to just have him ignore what I said, so this is mostly a rule to protect myself from going down a path that wastes my time.
Duncan and I have had some pretty extensive disagreements, mostly over norms. In particular, I’ve been quite displeased with Duncan for trying to unilaterally impose his preferred norms in places he did not have the authority to do so (or at least that’s how I interpreted his actions). Our biggest blow up was on a post where, as I recall, he objected to me presenting claims in a way that he interpreted as bad and that I was acting in a malicious way when I wrote in a way that allowed such an interpretation. My understanding from a third party who helped mediate was that I was more just the incidental object of Duncan’s wrath than being personally called out.
I’ll also say that Duncan and I used to be neighbors (shared a backyard fence) and that was fine. I hung out at Dragon Army Barracks several times, though now that I think of it I don’t think Duncan was really around when I was there.
Sorry for the lack of links above. I’m sure I could find links to threads to give examples if this matter was more important to me. It’s just barely important enough to write the above, but I don’t care enough to do any more work. Hopefully it’s useful background information to a few folks anyway.
I’ve had run ins with both Said and Duncan on LW and elsewhere
To clarify—you’re not including me in the “and elsewhere” part, are you? (To my knowledge, I’ve only ever interacted with you on Less Wrong. Is there something else that I’m forgetting…?)
I don’t have especially strong opinions about what to do here. But, for the curious, I’ve had run ins with both Said and Duncan on LW and elsewhere, so perhaps this is useful background information to folks outside the moderation team look at this who aren’t already aware (I know they are aware of basically everything I have to say here because I’ve talked to some of them about these situations).
Also, before I say anything else, I’ve not had extensive bad interactions with either Said or Duncan recently. Maybe that’s because I’ve been writing a book instead of making posts of the sort I used to make? Either way, this is a bit historical and is based on interactions from 1+ years ago.
I’ve faced the brunt of Said’s comments before. I’ve spent a lot of very long threads discussing things with him and finally gave up because it felt like talking to a brick wall. I have a soft ban on Said on my posts and comments, where I’ve committed to only reply to him once and not reply to his replies to me, since it seems to go in circles and not get anywhere. I often feel frustrated with Said because I feel like I’ve put in a lot of work in a conversation to just have him ignore what I said, so this is mostly a rule to protect myself from going down a path that wastes my time.
Duncan and I have had some pretty extensive disagreements, mostly over norms. In particular, I’ve been quite displeased with Duncan for trying to unilaterally impose his preferred norms in places he did not have the authority to do so (or at least that’s how I interpreted his actions). Our biggest blow up was on a post where, as I recall, he objected to me presenting claims in a way that he interpreted as bad and that I was acting in a malicious way when I wrote in a way that allowed such an interpretation. My understanding from a third party who helped mediate was that I was more just the incidental object of Duncan’s wrath than being personally called out.
I’ll also say that Duncan and I used to be neighbors (shared a backyard fence) and that was fine. I hung out at Dragon Army Barracks several times, though now that I think of it I don’t think Duncan was really around when I was there.
Sorry for the lack of links above. I’m sure I could find links to threads to give examples if this matter was more important to me. It’s just barely important enough to write the above, but I don’t care enough to do any more work. Hopefully it’s useful background information to a few folks anyway.
I affirm the accuracy of Gordon’s summary of our interactions; it feels fair and like a reasonable view on them.
To clarify—you’re not including me in the “and elsewhere” part, are you? (To my knowledge, I’ve only ever interacted with you on Less Wrong. Is there something else that I’m forgetting…?)
No, just LW.