“this post would suck less if it had more examples”
I would personally be inclined to downvote this on the principle of “less like this”, even if I agreed. It strikes me as unduly abrasive and more likely to cause not just the poster, but other people, to feel scared of posting. LessWrong is intimidating enough.
(I have been downvoted for such unhelpful abrasiveness before and, frankly, deserved it.)
“this post was great! It really gave me a lot to think about. Just one tiny thing, I’m really slow so I would appreciate it a lot if you just added a couple of examples to illustrate your points so that people like me can get it more easily :) Thanks!”
The minimum number of words I would respond with would likely be “Good post. Could do with examples for each point. Tell, then show.”
Commenting on LessWrong is difficult because smart nerd audiences are incredibly picky, so one must write anticipating as many possible objections as one can come up with. This is why I end up post-editing a lot. (Could really do with a “preview” button to check it renders as intended.) But good communication always takes effort.
Oh yeah, happy medium for sure.
I would personally be inclined to downvote this on the principle of “less like this”, even if I agreed. It strikes me as unduly abrasive and more likely to cause not just the poster, but other people, to feel scared of posting. LessWrong is intimidating enough.
(I have been downvoted for such unhelpful abrasiveness before and, frankly, deserved it.)
The minimum number of words I would respond with would likely be “Good post. Could do with examples for each point. Tell, then show.”
Commenting on LessWrong is difficult because smart nerd audiences are incredibly picky, so one must write anticipating as many possible objections as one can come up with. This is why I end up post-editing a lot. (Could really do with a “preview” button to check it renders as intended.) But good communication always takes effort.