Committing to reply to any comment seems like bait for trolls. Replying too much can be a bad thing. I worry about being off-putting by seeming needy or desperate. I also want to give my commenters a chance to talk to each other without me interrupting.
Committing to reply to any comment seems like [a bad idea].
Then don’t. It could be ‘at least one’, or ‘First’, or something. There could also be something like ‘if no one posts any comments on this, then (after a week) I will’.
There’s also the option of including a ‘unless I think you’re a troll’ clause.
I also want to give my commenters a chance to talk to each other without me interrupting.
The oath could be conditional on being invoked?
Like, ’I will respond to the first 5 questions
a) about this piece
b) directed at me*′
*(It’s easier to do this if there’s a way to be specifically notified, like an @ option).
That depends on the expected number of trolls and I would assume some implicit disclaimers like ’… this is intended to be understood charitably and not to the letter of it.” One might want to make that explicit though and then refer to e.g. The Standard LW Oath of reply.” Something like
My Oath of Reply is to respond to top-level comments at least once while there is an ongoing discussion [details to be defined]. I will likely pursue longer-form discussions. If commenters provide especially helpful feedback, I’ll note it here along with an acknowledgement.
The oath of reply is meant as a prior-increaser for receiving a reply specifically for an audience aiming for good faith dialog. So any assumptions or modifications needed to specify the sort of conversation you’re looking to have are appropriate. Much of this needs to be implicit, as we’re all busy people and don’t need 10 pages of legal boilerplate for this stuff.
Committing to reply to any comment seems like bait for trolls. Replying too much can be a bad thing. I worry about being off-putting by seeming needy or desperate. I also want to give my commenters a chance to talk to each other without me interrupting.
Then don’t. It could be ‘at least one’, or ‘First’, or something. There could also be something like ‘if no one posts any comments on this, then (after a week) I will’.
There’s also the option of including a ‘unless I think you’re a troll’ clause.
The oath could be conditional on being invoked?
Like, ’I will respond to the first 5 questions
a) about this piece
b) directed at me*′
*(It’s easier to do this if there’s a way to be specifically notified, like an @ option).
That depends on the expected number of trolls and I would assume some implicit disclaimers like ’… this is intended to be understood charitably and not to the letter of it.” One might want to make that explicit though and then refer to e.g. The Standard LW Oath of reply.” Something like
I like the idea of a standard LW OoR, and maybe there could be several. Optimally it would be as convenient as possible to include one.
The oath of reply is meant as a prior-increaser for receiving a reply specifically for an audience aiming for good faith dialog. So any assumptions or modifications needed to specify the sort of conversation you’re looking to have are appropriate. Much of this needs to be implicit, as we’re all busy people and don’t need 10 pages of legal boilerplate for this stuff.