What makes you think that the ‘Less Wrong cluster’ is particularly good at dissolving disagreements? Keep in mind that the forum mechanics and policies are highly engineered to disincentivize discussion of divisive topics, which might create the illusion of agreement.
By dissolving, I don’t mean resolving, but recognizing that there wasn’t a basis for disagreement in the first place. That’s the principle of dissolving a question.
That’s what makes me suspect it might be more difficult to engineer conflict among them, they’d be more likely to notice that there weren’t substantial grounds for them to be at odds in the first place, and prevent the conflict from becoming self perpetuating.
I’ve certainly seen cases of this happening here, where I would expect a much longer and more drawn out conflict elsewhere.
That’s what makes me suspect it might be more difficult to engineer conflict among them, they’d be more likely to notice that there weren’t substantial grounds for them to be at odds in the first place, and prevent the conflict from becoming self perpetuating.
Well, these show tend to work on a “there can be only one” principle: each week one contestant is removed until the last man standing wins. The confilct that this mechanic creates seems pretty hard to “dissolve”.
I’ve certainly seen cases of this happening here, where I would expect a much longer and more drawn out conflict elsewhere.
As I said, forum mechanics and moderation policy: Karma penalities, banned topics, etc: people don’t “dissolve” their disagrement, they just avoid discussing divisive topics.
It hasn’t been my experience that people here particularly avoid talking about divisive topics.
The mechanism of implementing karma penalties for replying to heavily downvoted comments is fairly recent, as are most of the topic bans. For a long time, there was only one banned topic, and that one had a built in expiration date which ran up years ago.
Politics isn’t banned, just discouraged, I’ve seen a number of political discussions here, and participated in a few. As long as they stick to actual issues of policy rather than Blues vs. Greens, they generally don’t attract objection.
What Desrtopa said. Also one can get away with discussing the basilisk as long as one doesn’t go into too many details and/or attract enough attention.
What makes you think that the ‘Less Wrong cluster’ is particularly good at dissolving disagreements?
Keep in mind that the forum mechanics and policies are highly engineered to disincentivize discussion of divisive topics, which might create the illusion of agreement.
By dissolving, I don’t mean resolving, but recognizing that there wasn’t a basis for disagreement in the first place. That’s the principle of dissolving a question.
That’s what makes me suspect it might be more difficult to engineer conflict among them, they’d be more likely to notice that there weren’t substantial grounds for them to be at odds in the first place, and prevent the conflict from becoming self perpetuating.
I’ve certainly seen cases of this happening here, where I would expect a much longer and more drawn out conflict elsewhere.
Well, these show tend to work on a “there can be only one” principle: each week one contestant is removed until the last man standing wins. The confilct that this mechanic creates seems pretty hard to “dissolve”.
As I said, forum mechanics and moderation policy: Karma penalities, banned topics, etc: people don’t “dissolve” their disagrement, they just avoid discussing divisive topics.
It hasn’t been my experience that people here particularly avoid talking about divisive topics.
The mechanism of implementing karma penalties for replying to heavily downvoted comments is fairly recent, as are most of the topic bans. For a long time, there was only one banned topic, and that one had a built in expiration date which ran up years ago.
Politics is a banned topic, and there is another one which can’t even be mentioned.
Politics isn’t banned, just discouraged, I’ve seen a number of political discussions here, and participated in a few. As long as they stick to actual issues of policy rather than Blues vs. Greens, they generally don’t attract objection.
What Desrtopa said. Also one can get away with discussing the basilisk as long as one doesn’t go into too many details and/or attract enough attention.