You are considering the issue out of context. It is trivial to argue that feature X of decision S is undesirable, as there are always positive and negative “sides” to any situation. A useful thing would be e.g. to suggest that a decision P would be superior overall to S. On a related note, being inconsistent is better than becoming consistently wrong (here, X=inconsistency).
Taken in isolation, the feature of imposing idiosyncratic topics on a community forum is undesirable. Taken in context, the particular posts added value because of other properties. Taken in isolation, the feature of an answer to mormon2′s question being of interest to some readers is good, but quality of presentation kills this benefit in the picture as a whole. Besides, the outline of the answer is prettyobvious, and was explained at length, so the cosmic significance of asking this question is also dubious.
Whether the strategy of focusing rationalist ideas is a reasonable means to SIAI’s ends, is a separate question that wasn’t considered in this discussion (but could be!).
I have implicitly suggested solutions in my post. Perhaps you want to reread it.
I’m not comfortable with there being no stated guidelines for post submissions, nor that the lack of such guidelines allow Eliezer to invent the rules on-the-go only when it serves him to do so.
I’m also not comfortable with their not being an available list of moderators/editors, as I fear that Eliezer may be the only one.
On a related note, being inconsistent is better than becoming consistently wrong (here, X=inconsistency).
But it is worse than being consistently right. Perhaps I’m failing to see your point here.
Taken in isolation, the feature of an answer to mormon2′s question being of interest to some readers is good, but quality of presentation kills this benefit in the picture as a whole. Besides, the outline of the answer is pretty obvious, and was explained at length, so the cosmic significance of asking this question is also dubious.
I don’t care about mormon2′s post, nor the questions raised in it. I think the answers which were provided are probably not accurate, but don’t really care. I’ve stated elsewhere my motivation for submitting this post, and its relation to mormon2′s post is only nominal (in that the comments Eliezer made to me occurred in its comment thread, but could have occurred elsewhere).
Eliezer doesn’t edit the posts here. He does choose which ones show up on the home page (ones with green karma scores). I often don’t like posts he promotes, and like posts he doesn’t promote. But it is his site. You can do as I do, and always immediately go to “NEW”.
I don’t buy your claim that the topic is out of context, when the context has been clearly and explicitly stated. Moreover, this is exactly the kind of hopelessly obfuscated response that engendered this topic in the first place. It’s all fine and dandy to be a technical rationalist and to use technical arguments, but there are many cases (like this topic addresses) that deserve more plain speaking.
You are considering the issue out of context. It is trivial to argue that feature X of decision S is undesirable, as there are always positive and negative “sides” to any situation. A useful thing would be e.g. to suggest that a decision P would be superior overall to S. On a related note, being inconsistent is better than becoming consistently wrong (here, X=inconsistency).
Taken in isolation, the feature of imposing idiosyncratic topics on a community forum is undesirable. Taken in context, the particular posts added value because of other properties. Taken in isolation, the feature of an answer to mormon2′s question being of interest to some readers is good, but quality of presentation kills this benefit in the picture as a whole. Besides, the outline of the answer is pretty obvious, and was explained at length, so the cosmic significance of asking this question is also dubious.
Whether the strategy of focusing rationalist ideas is a reasonable means to SIAI’s ends, is a separate question that wasn’t considered in this discussion (but could be!).
I have implicitly suggested solutions in my post. Perhaps you want to reread it.
I’m not comfortable with there being no stated guidelines for post submissions, nor that the lack of such guidelines allow Eliezer to invent the rules on-the-go only when it serves him to do so.
I’m also not comfortable with their not being an available list of moderators/editors, as I fear that Eliezer may be the only one.
But it is worse than being consistently right. Perhaps I’m failing to see your point here.
I don’t care about mormon2′s post, nor the questions raised in it. I think the answers which were provided are probably not accurate, but don’t really care. I’ve stated elsewhere my motivation for submitting this post, and its relation to mormon2′s post is only nominal (in that the comments Eliezer made to me occurred in its comment thread, but could have occurred elsewhere).
Eliezer doesn’t edit the posts here. He does choose which ones show up on the home page (ones with green karma scores). I often don’t like posts he promotes, and like posts he doesn’t promote. But it is his site. You can do as I do, and always immediately go to “NEW”.
I don’t buy your claim that the topic is out of context, when the context has been clearly and explicitly stated. Moreover, this is exactly the kind of hopelessly obfuscated response that engendered this topic in the first place. It’s all fine and dandy to be a technical rationalist and to use technical arguments, but there are many cases (like this topic addresses) that deserve more plain speaking.
You can’t “state” the context in the sense I used the word: it’s about how things are, not how one spins an argument.
So you are saying that you can’t state how things are then? Interesting. I guess I will just quit making any assessments of the world around me.