Eliezer’s view (apparently) is that if you don’t follow the rules, you get one comment addressing a couple of your object level claims, and then no further engagement from him personally. That seems reasonable to me
The problem with allowing yourself to do this sort of thing is that it creates an incentive to construct arbitrary “rules of epistemic conduct”, announcing them to nobody (or else making them very difficult to follow). Then you use non-compliance as an excuse to disengage from discussions and leave criticism unaddressed. If challenged, retort that it was not you who “defected” first, but your critics—see, look, they broke “the rules”! Surely you can’t be expected to treat with such rule-breakers?!
The result is that you just stop talking to anyone who disagrees with you. Oh, you might retort, rebut, rant, or debunk—but you don’t talk. And you certainly don’t listen.
Of course there is some degree of blatant “logical rudeness” which makes it impossible to engage productively with someone. And, at the same time, it’s not necessarily (and, indeed, not likely to be) worth your time to engage with all of your critics, regardless of how many “rules” they did or did not break.
But if you allow yourself to refuse engagement in response to non-compliance with arbitrary rules that you made up, you’re undermining your ability to benefit from engagement with people who disagree with you, and you’re reducing your credibility in the eyes of reasonable third parties—because you’re showing that you cannot be trusted to approach disagreement fairly.
The problem with allowing yourself to do this sort of thing is that it creates an incentive to construct arbitrary “rules of epistemic conduct”, announcing them to nobody (or else making them very difficult to follow). Then you use non-compliance as an excuse to disengage from discussions and leave criticism unaddressed. If challenged, retort that it was not you who “defected” first, but your critics—see, look, they broke “the rules”! Surely you can’t be expected to treat with such rule-breakers?!
The result is that you just stop talking to anyone who disagrees with you. Oh, you might retort, rebut, rant, or debunk—but you don’t talk. And you certainly don’t listen.
Of course there is some degree of blatant “logical rudeness” which makes it impossible to engage productively with someone. And, at the same time, it’s not necessarily (and, indeed, not likely to be) worth your time to engage with all of your critics, regardless of how many “rules” they did or did not break.
But if you allow yourself to refuse engagement in response to non-compliance with arbitrary rules that you made up, you’re undermining your ability to benefit from engagement with people who disagree with you, and you’re reducing your credibility in the eyes of reasonable third parties—because you’re showing that you cannot be trusted to approach disagreement fairly.