It’s important to be able to randomly exit conversations. Otherwise, people won’t add as much useful stuff to conversations in the first place (lest they be trapped).
I used to think the opposite. I’m no longer so sure but it’s at least not clear which position is right. Yes, if people couldn’t randomly exit, that has a cost in terms of some people being more reluctant to start/join conversations in the first place, but doesn’t the same apply for many rationalist norms? It also has benefits in terms of attracting people who like knowing that a conversation won’t just randomly end without them knowing why, and in terms of providing valuable info to the audience about why a conversation ended.
I really wish we could do an experiment to gather some empirical data about this, perhaps by implementing this 12-year-old feature request.
I was going to suggest something along the lines of your feature request. In an ideal world, I’d like it to tie in to a system that reminds the parent poster of open responses they wished to address (not through in-your-face notifications, but kept in some easily accessed list/priority queue).
I don’t generally worry at all about the etiquette of actively deciding to disengage online. What I do worry about is that I/others will forget to follow up on productive exchanges.
Generally, the people I’m most eager to get responses from have many high value ways to spend their time. To the extent that not responding is efficient for them, I have no problem with that. It only seems to be a net loss if they forgot/lost track.
I used to think the opposite. I’m no longer so sure but it’s at least not clear which position is right. Yes, if people couldn’t randomly exit, that has a cost in terms of some people being more reluctant to start/join conversations in the first place, but doesn’t the same apply for many rationalist norms? It also has benefits in terms of attracting people who like knowing that a conversation won’t just randomly end without them knowing why, and in terms of providing valuable info to the audience about why a conversation ended.
I really wish we could do an experiment to gather some empirical data about this, perhaps by implementing this 12-year-old feature request.
I was going to suggest something along the lines of your feature request. In an ideal world, I’d like it to tie in to a system that reminds the parent poster of open responses they wished to address (not through in-your-face notifications, but kept in some easily accessed list/priority queue).
I don’t generally worry at all about the etiquette of actively deciding to disengage online. What I do worry about is that I/others will forget to follow up on productive exchanges.
Generally, the people I’m most eager to get responses from have many high value ways to spend their time. To the extent that not responding is efficient for them, I have no problem with that. It only seems to be a net loss if they forgot/lost track.
Agreed. There are benefits to low-cost exit, but also costs, and which wins out depends on the situation.