If it isn’t backed by a surprisingly effective system for filtering out low-quality content, then most of the content on it will be crap
I feel like it won’t be that hard. My current idea is to make editing privileges invite-only.
I’m already cringing pretty hard at your list of examples; putting “cryonics works” and “there was an industrial civilization of birds in Antarctica” into an epistemic-status category together, comes across as a smear against cryonics, because the epistemic statuses of these two ideas is wildly different.
I didn’t look into the industrial civilization of birds hypothesis too much, but it seems like a perfectly natural theory that is consistent with how scientists usually think about the world. Obviously, specific geological evidence probably doesn’t back the theory up, but I’m not really trying to judge the plausibility of my examples right now. I’m more interested in whether they’re the type of things I’d want to read and think about. Judging from the upvotes, it seems like a lot of people enjoyed thinking about CellBioGuy’s theory.
I feel like it won’t be that hard. My current idea is to make editing privileges invite-only.
Is there any Wiki that’s invite-only that works?
Generally, you have to think about incentives. Publishing content on a Wiki generally means getting less personal recognition for having written the content. Publishing things on Wikipedia is useful because while you get little personal recognition you get a lot of reach.
Maybe you can have something Wiki-like where the person who starts a post owns it and can accept/reject changes. Plausibly ownership of theories can be sold via NFTs. You could build rules around it that are enforced via Kleros.
There might be incentive structures that are possible with crypto that allow for good sources of information to be created.
Depends on what you mean by “works” but there’s the Timelines wiki and the Cause Prioritization Wiki which says that you must “Contact Issa Rice to obtain an account on the wiki.” I’m not aware of other examples (but I’m sure there are at least a few).
Generally, you have to think about incentives. Publishing content on a Wiki generally means getting less personal recognition for having written the content. Publishing things on Wikipedia is useful because while you get little personal recognition you get a lot of reach.
I think the main reason why people post on wikis is that they find it fun, or satisfying in some way, rather than the reach it gets. It’s easier than blogging because you can be satisfied with contributing just one line, rather than requiring a fully written article every time you want to publish something. Also I doubt anyone would want to contribute to this project if it were organized as a set of blogs.
It seems like you’re just asking me the question I asked in this post?
Anyway, in a comment above you said that interest in consumption was not the same as interest in contributions. But typically, interest in consumption represents weak evidence of willingness to pay for a good!
But typically, interest in consumption represents weak evidence of willingness to pay for a good!
That depends on the business model. In the model in which the Wikis you linked to exist, they are not funded primarily because of interest in consumption. They are funded because of the belief that it’s a valuable target for EA donations.
I’m not aware of a Wiki where a majority of the content is paid and that’s not funded because of altruistic motives.
I’m having trouble keeping track of the central objection. First, it was you won’t be able to filter out bad content --> I’m not aware of platforms that use invite-only --> I’m not aware of platforms that use invite only AND pay people for non-altruistic content. Anyway, it would be too curt to just say “Have you tried thinking for five minutes first?” so I’ll try to explain my perspective. :)
There are vast numbers of websites filled with people writing content about various things. This website is even one of them. If people think this website is an interesting concept, then it would be more productive to search over the space of possible site designs and see if one makes sense. I agree that most immediate solutions that come to mind don’t seem viable, but that’s typical of new ideas.
Anyway, it would be too curt to just say “Have you tried thinking for five minutes first?” so I’ll briefly add one more point.
I think you seriously underrate the amount I spent thinking about how to make Wiki systems work. I have been involved in policy making in multiple Wiki projects.
I did get an in person explanation from Issa about how their system works a while back in a lot more then 5 minutes. I don’t think it’s applicable here.
Wiki is a quite general term. It’s both a term about technology and one about a way to interact together.
You said at the same time “I think the main reason why people post on wikis is that they find it fun, or satisfying in some way, rather than the reach it gets.” and spoke about Vipul’s Wikis when those simply don’t work that way.
I feel like it won’t be that hard. My current idea is to make editing privileges invite-only.
I didn’t look into the industrial civilization of birds hypothesis too much, but it seems like a perfectly natural theory that is consistent with how scientists usually think about the world. Obviously, specific geological evidence probably doesn’t back the theory up, but I’m not really trying to judge the plausibility of my examples right now. I’m more interested in whether they’re the type of things I’d want to read and think about. Judging from the upvotes, it seems like a lot of people enjoyed thinking about CellBioGuy’s theory.
Is there any Wiki that’s invite-only that works?
Generally, you have to think about incentives. Publishing content on a Wiki generally means getting less personal recognition for having written the content. Publishing things on Wikipedia is useful because while you get little personal recognition you get a lot of reach.
Maybe you can have something Wiki-like where the person who starts a post owns it and can accept/reject changes. Plausibly ownership of theories can be sold via NFTs. You could build rules around it that are enforced via Kleros.
There might be incentive structures that are possible with crypto that allow for good sources of information to be created.
Depends on what you mean by “works” but there’s the Timelines wiki and the Cause Prioritization Wiki which says that you must “Contact Issa Rice to obtain an account on the wiki.” I’m not aware of other examples (but I’m sure there are at least a few).
I think the main reason why people post on wikis is that they find it fun, or satisfying in some way, rather than the reach it gets. It’s easier than blogging because you can be satisfied with contributing just one line, rather than requiring a fully written article every time you want to publish something. Also I doubt anyone would want to contribute to this project if it were organized as a set of blogs.
Most of the content of those Wiki’s exist because someone paid for it. If you want to copy that model, who’s going to fund the writing of the content?
It seems like you’re just asking me the question I asked in this post?
Anyway, in a comment above you said that interest in consumption was not the same as interest in contributions. But typically, interest in consumption represents weak evidence of willingness to pay for a good!
That depends on the business model. In the model in which the Wikis you linked to exist, they are not funded primarily because of interest in consumption. They are funded because of the belief that it’s a valuable target for EA donations.
I’m not aware of a Wiki where a majority of the content is paid and that’s not funded because of altruistic motives.
I’m having trouble keeping track of the central objection. First, it was you won’t be able to filter out bad content --> I’m not aware of platforms that use invite-only --> I’m not aware of platforms that use invite only AND pay people for non-altruistic content. Anyway, it would be too curt to just say “Have you tried thinking for five minutes first?” so I’ll try to explain my perspective. :)
There are vast numbers of websites filled with people writing content about various things. This website is even one of them. If people think this website is an interesting concept, then it would be more productive to search over the space of possible site designs and see if one makes sense. I agree that most immediate solutions that come to mind don’t seem viable, but that’s typical of new ideas.
I think you seriously underrate the amount I spent thinking about how to make Wiki systems work. I have been involved in policy making in multiple Wiki projects.
I did get an in person explanation from Issa about how their system works a while back in a lot more then 5 minutes. I don’t think it’s applicable here.
Yeah, that’s reasonable. FWIW I meant “think for five minutes about the specific objection” rather than “think for five minutes about wiki systems.”
Wiki is a quite general term. It’s both a term about technology and one about a way to interact together.
You said at the same time “I think the main reason why people post on wikis is that they find it fun, or satisfying in some way, rather than the reach it gets.” and spoke about Vipul’s Wikis when those simply don’t work that way.