But by that same reasoning, a fundamentalist Christian could come here, see that someone has written a long comment about, say, evolution, and reply with a link to a prewritten web page listing 100 arguments against evolution. He reasons that if he posts a good explanation, people who are frightened by the idea of fundamentalists being a menace can read the explanation and hear a “dissenting voice”,,,.
As far as he is concerned, he has followed your recommendations exactly. Is there something you could say which explains why his behavior is unacceptable, but the behavior you describe is acceptable, that does not involve “our anti-anti-vaccination page is well-written and your anti-evolution page is not”?
(Alternatively, would you find his behavior acceptable? This seems odd.)
A fundamentalist Christian who would post here a link to a page listing arguments against evolution would be more effective than the one who would try to debate, because they would achieve the same (in this situation: zero) effect while spending much less resources. The people who would try to debate them, each of them would waste more of their time by reading the linked page and composing the reply. So, I believe this is a good strategy.
Specifically on LW we have an (unwritten?) norm that if you post a link, you should also provide a summary using your own words. Which probably was designed to counter this strategy. But there are website which don’t have this norm, e.g. Facebook.
Specifically on LW we have an (unwritten?) norm that if you post a link, you should also provide a summary using your own words. Which probably was designed to counter this strategy.
It is not specific to LW, but a custom of good practice that personally, I have followed ever since there has been such a thing as a link (and before then, when the equivalent was posting to an email list a cut-and-paste of someone else’s words without any words from the person posting). I also practice the custom of ignoring links that come to me without context.
I recommend both parts of this practice to everyone.
But by that same reasoning, a fundamentalist Christian could come here, see that someone has written a long comment about, say, evolution, and reply with a link to a prewritten web page listing 100 arguments against evolution. He reasons that if he posts a good explanation, people who are frightened by the idea of fundamentalists being a menace can read the explanation and hear a “dissenting voice”,,,.
As far as he is concerned, he has followed your recommendations exactly. Is there something you could say which explains why his behavior is unacceptable, but the behavior you describe is acceptable, that does not involve “our anti-anti-vaccination page is well-written and your anti-evolution page is not”?
(Alternatively, would you find his behavior acceptable? This seems odd.)
A fundamentalist Christian who would post here a link to a page listing arguments against evolution would be more effective than the one who would try to debate, because they would achieve the same (in this situation: zero) effect while spending much less resources. The people who would try to debate them, each of them would waste more of their time by reading the linked page and composing the reply. So, I believe this is a good strategy.
Specifically on LW we have an (unwritten?) norm that if you post a link, you should also provide a summary using your own words. Which probably was designed to counter this strategy. But there are website which don’t have this norm, e.g. Facebook.
It is not specific to LW, but a custom of good practice that personally, I have followed ever since there has been such a thing as a link (and before then, when the equivalent was posting to an email list a cut-and-paste of someone else’s words without any words from the person posting). I also practice the custom of ignoring links that come to me without context.
I recommend both parts of this practice to everyone.