That’s an amazing project, and I hope you eventually turn this knowledge into a post—I think the community would definitely benefit from a comprehensive study of its past.
What? No, no! Sorry, I meant in the sense of looking at it all for my own amusement, certainly nothing academic or likely even keeping details! I thought that was clear when I said this was strictly for “Internet as television” time—if it wasn’t just for my own amusement, I wouldn’t bother. Writing up anything (beyond something irritating and idiosyncratic on RW) is entirely too much like work. Besides, I’ve already blown it in observer effect …
Approaching LessWrong itself as a casual cultural and anthropological study: how does this machine made of people actually work?
if it wasn’t just for my own amusement, I wouldn’t bother.
Well, if any insights happen to pop into your head during this “Internet as television” time, and you happen to write them down, I for one would be interested in reading them since you seem to have deep knowledge of other worthwhile online communities.
Well, it is a personal fascination. Mostly from trying to work out how the heck to get Wikipedia to work better. I doubt I have any greater wisdom than anyone else who’s been online since Usenet to write a report of concerning LW.
(I have seen someone on LW call Wikipedia a triumph of rational planning. No, it really never was—we got lucky, lots and lots, as we were all making up encyclopedia writing as we went along. Lots of decisions could easily have gone either way. Nobody understands how this thing works or how to fix what doesn’t work. We sort of make suggestions at the edges of things that seem to be good ideas, and the WMF spends money on the ones that require more than individual brilliance to implement.)
That’s an amazing project, and I hope you eventually turn this knowledge into a post—I think the community would definitely benefit from a comprehensive study of its past.
What? No, no! Sorry, I meant in the sense of looking at it all for my own amusement, certainly nothing academic or likely even keeping details! I thought that was clear when I said this was strictly for “Internet as television” time—if it wasn’t just for my own amusement, I wouldn’t bother. Writing up anything (beyond something irritating and idiosyncratic on RW) is entirely too much like work. Besides, I’ve already blown it in observer effect …
Well, if any insights happen to pop into your head during this “Internet as television” time, and you happen to write them down, I for one would be interested in reading them since you seem to have deep knowledge of other worthwhile online communities.
Well, it is a personal fascination. Mostly from trying to work out how the heck to get Wikipedia to work better. I doubt I have any greater wisdom than anyone else who’s been online since Usenet to write a report of concerning LW.
(I have seen someone on LW call Wikipedia a triumph of rational planning. No, it really never was—we got lucky, lots and lots, as we were all making up encyclopedia writing as we went along. Lots of decisions could easily have gone either way. Nobody understands how this thing works or how to fix what doesn’t work. We sort of make suggestions at the edges of things that seem to be good ideas, and the WMF spends money on the ones that require more than individual brilliance to implement.)