It’s true that Less Wrong has a reputation for crazy ideas. But as long as it has that reputation, we might as well continue posting crazy ideas here, since crazy ideas can be quite valuable. If LW was “rebooted” in some other form, and crazy ideas were discussed there, the new forum would probably acquire its own reputation for crazy ideas soon enough.
The great thing about LW is that it allows a smart, dedicated, unknown person to share their ideas with a bunch of smart people who will either explain why it’s wrong or change their actions based on it relatively quickly. Many of LW’s former major contributors have now independently acquired large audiences that pay attention to their ideas, so they don’t need LW anymore. But it’s very valuable to leave LW open in order to net new contributors like Nate Soares (who started out writing book reviews for LW and was recently promoted to be MIRI’s executive director). (Come to think of it, lukeprog was also “discovered” through Less Wrong as well… he went from atheist blogger to LW contributor to MIRI visiting fellow to MIRI director.)
Consider also infrequent bloggers. Kaj Sotala’s LW posts seem to get substantially more comments than the posts on his personal blog. Building and retaining an audience on an independent blog requires frequent posting, self-promotion, etc… we shouldn’t require this of people who have something important to say.
It’s true that Less Wrong has a reputation for crazy ideas. But as long as it has that reputation, we might as well continue posting crazy ideas here, since crazy ideas can be quite valuable. If LW was “rebooted” in some other form, and crazy ideas were discussed there, the new forum would probably acquire its own reputation for crazy ideas soon enough.
The great thing about LW is that it allows a smart, dedicated, unknown person to share their ideas with a bunch of smart people who will either explain why it’s wrong or change their actions based on it relatively quickly. Many of LW’s former major contributors have now independently acquired large audiences that pay attention to their ideas, so they don’t need LW anymore. But it’s very valuable to leave LW open in order to net new contributors like Nate Soares (who started out writing book reviews for LW and was recently promoted to be MIRI’s executive director). (Come to think of it, lukeprog was also “discovered” through Less Wrong as well… he went from atheist blogger to LW contributor to MIRI visiting fellow to MIRI director.)
Consider also infrequent bloggers. Kaj Sotala’s LW posts seem to get substantially more comments than the posts on his personal blog. Building and retaining an audience on an independent blog requires frequent posting, self-promotion, etc… we shouldn’t require this of people who have something important to say.