minimalist, 17, white, male, autodidact, atheist, libertarian, california, hacker, studying computer science, reading sequences, intellectual upbringing, 1 year bayesian rationalist, motivation deficient, focusing on skills, was creating something similar to bayesian rationality before conversion, have read hpmor (not intro to lw), interested in contributing to ai research in the future
There are a few other reasons I could be formatting my introduction that way, such as being bad at English or writing in general. I used “minimalist” both as a heads up for the format and to draw away from the other possible explanations.
Consider restarting with a different account name. Trolling (that is, trying to provoke people) is not welcome here, and when your username is “troll”, people will not (and should not) give you the benefit of doubt.
Illusion of transparency seems relevant; even if you know why you picked that username, others can only guess, and their guess should be expected to match their experience, not your private knowledge.
The choice of a name can provide some evidence about whether it’s a good-faith account or not; and the name “troll” is providing evidence against. If you told people why you chose that name that might serve to counteract the effect, but I think you’ve not yet done so… Needing to justify your nick may seem unfair to you, but consider it from the point of view of someone who doesn’t know you.
My standard way of dealing with internet names is to just ignore them completely because they don’t provide much evidence/usefulness (unless I want to reference the person) and I want to read the comment anyway. I guess I thought LWers would either not notice my name at all or see it, be a little more suspicious, and read anyway. (not immediately downvote or tell me my name sucks and I should change it)
AFAICT, you’re looking at posts anyway, so good/bad natured names shouldn’t matter, only good/bad natured writing.
On an elitist gaming forum I used to frequent (RPG Codex), we called such things “post-ironic” (meaning “post-modern as fuck online performance art”).
Basically the joke is that everyone gets the joke, and that allows its author to act as if it was no joke, and self-consciously reference that fact—which is the joke.
Data point: I’m anti-contrarian (well, somewhat) in emotional sentiment, but not in any rationally held principle, and I’m trying not to mistreat contrarians, especially if I’m curious about their ideas. This might be unpleasant to admit, though, as it’s basically prejudgice.
I guess a lot of people are interested enough in an account with the handle “troll” to check my first post, but not enough to not consider the name when reviewing posts.
Realistically, when someone replies to one of my posts on some long thread, I don’t take the time to click through their handle and find their own intro post. I don’t think that doing so is a good use of my time, and I believe that I am typical in this regard. However, I do take the time to read their handle, and if it seems to say “I am not arguing in good faith”, I take notice.
This gives me an idea for a new Less Wrong feature, though: allow users to enter a short descriptions of themselves, and display it when the mouse hovers over their handle for a certain amount of time. I know how I’d implement it with jQuery, but I’m not sure how easy it would be to plug into the LW general architecture.
I think it would be simpler to just allow people to add a short description of themselves to the user page. (And then maybe later the hovering thing can be added if people want that.)
Agreed; if we had that feature, then we could write the Greasemonkey (or whatever) extension as well, since it would just scrub their user page for the description.
...huh. OK, how on earth do you set up that “profile” thing you have? I can’t find it anywhere in the preferences. I think we need to promote this a bit more.
minimalist, 17, white, male, autodidact, atheist, libertarian, california, hacker, studying computer science, reading sequences, intellectual upbringing, 1 year bayesian rationalist, motivation deficient, focusing on skills, was creating something similar to bayesian rationality before conversion, have read hpmor (not intro to lw), interested in contributing to ai research in the future
The Identikit LessWrongian!
“Minimalist” is implied by the sparsity of the rest of the comment, and so is ironically redundant.
There are a few other reasons I could be formatting my introduction that way, such as being bad at English or writing in general. I used “minimalist” both as a heads up for the format and to draw away from the other possible explanations.
I’m sure you’re aware at this point, but with that description you blend into the wallpaper.
Thank you for creating a comment to link “stereotypical Less Wrong reader”. If only you were a couple of years older.
Since you’re 17, have you looked into the week-long summer camp?
I have and I have submitted an application.
Consider restarting with a different account name. Trolling (that is, trying to provoke people) is not welcome here, and when your username is “troll”, people will not (and should not) give you the benefit of doubt.
Should not? Why? Obviously I’m not provoking anyone.
Illusion of transparency seems relevant; even if you know why you picked that username, others can only guess, and their guess should be expected to match their experience, not your private knowledge.
I expect people to know what a troll is based on cultural knowledge. I expect them to not care due to this being LW.
Consider your second expectation falsified and update on it, as a “bayesian rationalist” would.
Yeah okay.
Oh man 2⁄3 downvotes just for an affirmation.
The choice of a name can provide some evidence about whether it’s a good-faith account or not; and the name “troll” is providing evidence against. If you told people why you chose that name that might serve to counteract the effect, but I think you’ve not yet done so… Needing to justify your nick may seem unfair to you, but consider it from the point of view of someone who doesn’t know you.
See also
My standard way of dealing with internet names is to just ignore them completely because they don’t provide much evidence/usefulness (unless I want to reference the person) and I want to read the comment anyway. I guess I thought LWers would either not notice my name at all or see it, be a little more suspicious, and read anyway. (not immediately downvote or tell me my name sucks and I should change it)
AFAICT, you’re looking at posts anyway, so good/bad natured names shouldn’t matter, only good/bad natured writing.
That handle bodes well.
On an elitist gaming forum I used to frequent (RPG Codex), we called such things “post-ironic” (meaning “post-modern as fuck online performance art”).
Basically the joke is that everyone gets the joke, and that allows its author to act as if it was no joke, and self-consciously reference that fact—which is the joke.
Welcome to LessWrong!
(For a cheap way to give a better impression, you may want to switch to another user name)
Contrarian?
No.
Anti-contrarian?
If you mean ‘against people who are contrarian’, no. If you mean ‘for popular opinions’, no.
Data point: I’m anti-contrarian (well, somewhat) in emotional sentiment, but not in any rationally held principle, and I’m trying not to mistreat contrarians, especially if I’m curious about their ideas. This might be unpleasant to admit, though, as it’s basically prejudgice.
You weren’t kidding when you said “minimalist”. Nicely done.
I guess a lot of people are interested enough in an account with the handle “troll” to check my first post, but not enough to not consider the name when reviewing posts.
Realistically, when someone replies to one of my posts on some long thread, I don’t take the time to click through their handle and find their own intro post. I don’t think that doing so is a good use of my time, and I believe that I am typical in this regard. However, I do take the time to read their handle, and if it seems to say “I am not arguing in good faith”, I take notice.
This gives me an idea for a new Less Wrong feature, though: allow users to enter a short descriptions of themselves, and display it when the mouse hovers over their handle for a certain amount of time. I know how I’d implement it with jQuery, but I’m not sure how easy it would be to plug into the LW general architecture.
I think it would be simpler to just allow people to add a short description of themselves to the user page. (And then maybe later the hovering thing can be added if people want that.)
Agreed; if we had that feature, then we could write the Greasemonkey (or whatever) extension as well, since it would just scrub their user page for the description.
Don’t we have that as part of the linked wiki userpages?
...huh. OK, how on earth do you set up that “profile” thing you have? I can’t find it anywhere in the preferences. I think we need to promote this a bit more.
As far as I know, you just register the exact same account name on the LW wiki, and create your userpage, and it’s transcluded over automatically.
Hm. OK, I made myself a user page on the Wiki a few hours ago, and I still have no profile here. Do you know how long this is supposed to take?
Second, minute, hour, day are the usual Schelling points for things updating. In this case, when I click on your username I get
So I’m guessing the syncing is done daily.
Greasemonkey or a browser extension that injects javascript?
How would it get the intro post, though ?