I expect that I (and many other users) would get more benefit out of this feature if it was more personalized. If I have personally upvoted a lot of posts by a user, then make that user’s comments appear even larger to me (but not to other readers). That way, the people who I like would be a “bigger” part of my Less Wrong experience.
It’s a bit concerning that you seem not have considered this possibility. It seems like this sort of personalization would’ve naturally come under consideration if LW’s leadership was paying attention to the state of the art in user experience like the Facebook news feed.
Wouldn’t this create an echo chamber where users keep noticing more from what they personally agree with, and consequentially less from the rest?
Facebook caters to you, the user. Less Wrong, in my opinion, should revolve around the topic of discussion, not the users participating in it and what they value as individuals.
I think it wouldn’t be harmful if activities from users you routinely upvote are made more visible to you in your “main page,” “feed” or whatever it’s called here. But once you enter an article and an open discussion is set in place, hierarchies should dissolve, not be accentuated. After all, what matters to us beyond a user’s personal profile is the quality of their ideas, not who they are.
I expect that I (and many other users) would get more benefit out of this feature if it was more personalized. If I have personally upvoted a lot of posts by a user, then make that user’s comments appear even larger to me (but not to other readers). That way, the people who I like would be a “bigger” part of my Less Wrong experience.
It’s a bit concerning that you seem not have considered this possibility. It seems like this sort of personalization would’ve naturally come under consideration if LW’s leadership was paying attention to the state of the art in user experience like the Facebook news feed.
Wouldn’t this create an echo chamber where users keep noticing more from what they personally agree with, and consequentially less from the rest?
Facebook caters to you, the user. Less Wrong, in my opinion, should revolve around the topic of discussion, not the users participating in it and what they value as individuals.
I think it wouldn’t be harmful if activities from users you routinely upvote are made more visible to you in your “main page,” “feed” or whatever it’s called here. But once you enter an article and an open discussion is set in place, hierarchies should dissolve, not be accentuated. After all, what matters to us beyond a user’s personal profile is the quality of their ideas, not who they are.