Thank you for the clarification. While I have a certain hesitance to throw around terms like “irredeemable”, I do understand the frustration with a certain, let’s say, overconfident and persistent brand of misunderstanding and how difficult it can be to maintain a public forum in its presence.
My one suggestion is that, if the goal was to avoid RobbBB’s (wonderfully high-quality comments, by the way) confusion, a private message might have been better. If the goal was more generally to minimize the confusion for those of us who are newer or less versed in LessWrong lore, more description might have been useful (“a known and persistent troll” or whatever) rather than just providing a name from the enemies list.
Though actually, Eliezer used similar phrasing regarding Richard Loosemore and got downvoted for it (not just by me). Admittedly, “persistent troll” is less extreme than “permanent idiot,” but even so, the statement could be phrased to be more useful.
I’d suggest, “We’ve presented similar arguments to [person] already, and [he or she] remained unconvinced. Ponder carefully before deciding to spend much time arguing with [him or her].”
Not only is it less offensive this way, it does a better job of explaining itself. (Note: the “ponder carefully” section is quoting Eliezer; that part of his post was fine.)
Thank you for the clarification. While I have a certain hesitance to throw around terms like “irredeemable”, I do understand the frustration with a certain, let’s say, overconfident and persistent brand of misunderstanding and how difficult it can be to maintain a public forum in its presence.
My one suggestion is that, if the goal was to avoid RobbBB’s (wonderfully high-quality comments, by the way) confusion, a private message might have been better. If the goal was more generally to minimize the confusion for those of us who are newer or less versed in LessWrong lore, more description might have been useful (“a known and persistent troll” or whatever) rather than just providing a name from the enemies list.
Agreed.
Though actually, Eliezer used similar phrasing regarding Richard Loosemore and got downvoted for it (not just by me). Admittedly, “persistent troll” is less extreme than “permanent idiot,” but even so, the statement could be phrased to be more useful.
I’d suggest, “We’ve presented similar arguments to [person] already, and [he or she] remained unconvinced. Ponder carefully before deciding to spend much time arguing with [him or her].”
Not only is it less offensive this way, it does a better job of explaining itself. (Note: the “ponder carefully” section is quoting Eliezer; that part of his post was fine.)