While certainly these posts are long and extensively-cited, that seems far from a sufficient condition for posting in LW Main. There are many Wikipedia articles that are long and extensively-cited, but almost none of them would be appropriate LW Main posts.
In general I think that Main posts should be directly related to rationality, and that posts not directly related to rationality shouldn’t go in Main unless you have a really good reason to put them there, especially if you intend to write an extended series of posts. There are a lot of blogging platforms on the Internet, and while LW is an especially good one, not all content is appropriate for it.
This is applying a standard that would have gotten much of Eliezer’s original sequences kicked over to discussion had the distinction existed at the time.
In fact, if you read the old comments on those posts, you can find examples of people questioning whether they fit the subject matter of Overcoming Bias.
Is this series any less fit for LessWrong than a series on quantum physics? Or scientific self-help (which Luke has done)?
There’s also the fact that main motivation for this post series was to help address the question of how far we can trust mainstream scientific consensus. Indeed, in large part it’s a response to a claim made by Eliezer in “The Correct Contrarian Cluster.”
This is applying a standard that would have gotten much of Eliezer’s original sequences kicked over to discussion had the distinction existed at the time.
I’m not sure I agree with you. But as you point out, Discussion didn’t exist back then—it may well be that some of those posts would be more appropriate for Discussion than for Main! Discussion doesn’t mean “bad quality” or “LW-lite,” it’s just a different board for different topics.
There’s also the fact that main motivation for this post series was to help address the question of how far we can trust mainstream scientific consensus. Indeed, in large part it’s a response to a claim made by Eliezer in “The Correct Contrarian Cluster.”
I upvoted your original post—I saw it as marginal for Main, but certainly interesting and potentially relevant. However, the following posts talked less and less about rationality and more and more about specific disputes in nutrition science, which made me think that the series as a whole would be better in Discussion rather than Main.
While certainly these posts are long and extensively-cited, that seems far from a sufficient condition for posting in LW Main. There are many Wikipedia articles that are long and extensively-cited, but almost none of them would be appropriate LW Main posts.
In general I think that Main posts should be directly related to rationality, and that posts not directly related to rationality shouldn’t go in Main unless you have a really good reason to put them there, especially if you intend to write an extended series of posts. There are a lot of blogging platforms on the Internet, and while LW is an especially good one, not all content is appropriate for it.
This is applying a standard that would have gotten much of Eliezer’s original sequences kicked over to discussion had the distinction existed at the time.
In fact, if you read the old comments on those posts, you can find examples of people questioning whether they fit the subject matter of Overcoming Bias.
Is this series any less fit for LessWrong than a series on quantum physics? Or scientific self-help (which Luke has done)?
There’s also the fact that main motivation for this post series was to help address the question of how far we can trust mainstream scientific consensus. Indeed, in large part it’s a response to a claim made by Eliezer in “The Correct Contrarian Cluster.”
I’m not sure I agree with you. But as you point out, Discussion didn’t exist back then—it may well be that some of those posts would be more appropriate for Discussion than for Main! Discussion doesn’t mean “bad quality” or “LW-lite,” it’s just a different board for different topics.
I upvoted your original post—I saw it as marginal for Main, but certainly interesting and potentially relevant. However, the following posts talked less and less about rationality and more and more about specific disputes in nutrition science, which made me think that the series as a whole would be better in Discussion rather than Main.