It feels quite suboptimal to have a public forum that’s indexed on google, and at the same time be trying to deliberately keep the riffraff out by being obtuse.
If you want to not worry about what people will think, while being able to use your full name, you should use a private forum. Not understanding what Moloch means won’t stop an employer from not hiring you for considering heterdox views.
On a public forum, where anyone could stumble on a link from google, I think eukaryote’s thoughts are quite important.
Or, to be more precise, I agree denotationally but object connotationally: indeed, the thing I want is a different thing than what Less Wrong is, but it’s not clear to me that it’s a different thing than what Less Wrong easily could be.
To take a simple example of an axis of variation: it is entirely possible to have a public forum which is not indexed by Google.
A more complicated example: there is a difference between obtuseness and lack of deliberate, positive effort to minimize inferential distance to outsiders. I do not advocate the former… but whether to endorse the latter is a trickier question (not least because interpreting the latter is a tricky matter on its own).
It feels quite suboptimal to have a public forum that’s indexed on google, and at the same time be trying to deliberately keep the riffraff out by being obtuse.
If you want to not worry about what people will think, while being able to use your full name, you should use a private forum. Not understanding what Moloch means won’t stop an employer from not hiring you for considering heterdox views.
On a public forum, where anyone could stumble on a link from google, I think eukaryote’s thoughts are quite important.
I didn’t advocate being obtuse. I only said that by default, we probably do not (and/or ought not) want a post to be disseminated widely.
What is the best way of accomplishing this, is a separate matter.
My point was that if that’s a thing you want, you probably do not want a public site like LW. The thing you want is a different thing than what LW is.
I don’t think I agree.
Or, to be more precise, I agree denotationally but object connotationally: indeed, the thing I want is a different thing than what Less Wrong is, but it’s not clear to me that it’s a different thing than what Less Wrong easily could be.
To take a simple example of an axis of variation: it is entirely possible to have a public forum which is not indexed by Google.
A more complicated example: there is a difference between obtuseness and lack of deliberate, positive effort to minimize inferential distance to outsiders. I do not advocate the former… but whether to endorse the latter is a trickier question (not least because interpreting the latter is a tricky matter on its own).