it’s up to you to find the truth, not up to other people to pound it into your head for you.
Your views aren’t really what’s at issue here, but how you are saying what you are saying. A number of times you have resorted to pure ad hominem (and sometimes it’s downright rude). I know you must understand that this is going to be frowned upon on a site like this.
gjm has given a very excellent description of the kinds of things that have been downvoted and why that is likely. It’s well worth a read… it will help you on other sites than this one. From my experience,, LW is a very forgiving group compared to others—where here you get a gentle nudge through a downvote—others will simply spew vitriol your way. I think you shouldn’t interpret our downvotes as “we don’t like your views”—but “hey, that could have been kinder/more rational/more to the point—why don’t you think about it”
If you respond in a more considered, more rational way (not your views, but your tone), then you will likely see an improvement in your karma.
I’m going to have to disagree here, that’s much more helpful to a person than wordless shunning. Like, regardless of how unhelpful it can be, it is a factor of infinity more helpful and more humane than just downvoting. As Eliezer puts it, apathy is sometimes worse than hate. At least someone who hates you cares enough to do something.
I actually think the setup we’ve got here where you hemorrhage karma every time you engage a downvoted thread is a really obscenely terrible choice for a community of analyticals. A norm of rejecting arguments without feeling any need to explain yourself is much worse for us than a relatively weak time-sync(next to the average mobile game, comment trolls are nothing). In the least, the threshold (-5 karma) is too low.
I agree that actual words explaining why you gave a downvote is far more beneficial than simple silent shunning. I strongly endorse giving useful feedback whenever you downvote on a post here.
However I disagree that the usual kind of youtube-comment vitirol is useful data. Profanity-filled ad-hominem does not give you useful information to update upon. I’d rather five silent downvotes from a community whose opinions I trust than five unhelpful youtube comments. YMMV
it’s up to you to find the truth, not up to other people to pound it into your head for you.
Your views aren’t really what’s at issue here, but how you are saying what you are saying. A number of times you have resorted to pure ad hominem (and sometimes it’s downright rude). I know you must understand that this is going to be frowned upon on a site like this.
gjm has given a very excellent description of the kinds of things that have been downvoted and why that is likely. It’s well worth a read… it will help you on other sites than this one. From my experience,, LW is a very forgiving group compared to others—where here you get a gentle nudge through a downvote—others will simply spew vitriol your way. I think you shouldn’t interpret our downvotes as “we don’t like your views”—but “hey, that could have been kinder/more rational/more to the point—why don’t you think about it”
If you respond in a more considered, more rational way (not your views, but your tone), then you will likely see an improvement in your karma.
I’m going to have to disagree here, that’s much more helpful to a person than wordless shunning. Like, regardless of how unhelpful it can be, it is a factor of infinity more helpful and more humane than just downvoting. As Eliezer puts it, apathy is sometimes worse than hate. At least someone who hates you cares enough to do something.
I actually think the setup we’ve got here where you hemorrhage karma every time you engage a downvoted thread is a really obscenely terrible choice for a community of analyticals. A norm of rejecting arguments without feeling any need to explain yourself is much worse for us than a relatively weak time-sync(next to the average mobile game, comment trolls are nothing). In the least, the threshold (-5 karma) is too low.
I agree that actual words explaining why you gave a downvote is far more beneficial than simple silent shunning. I strongly endorse giving useful feedback whenever you downvote on a post here.
However I disagree that the usual kind of youtube-comment vitirol is useful data. Profanity-filled ad-hominem does not give you useful information to update upon. I’d rather five silent downvotes from a community whose opinions I trust than five unhelpful youtube comments. YMMV