I don’t have a problem with the way things are right now, but if a lot of people are annoyed, one solution might be to create a “life-hacks” section for Less Wrong. This would have the effect of removing the posts you dislike from the discussion area (improving the signal : noise ratio from your perspective), while also improving the experience for people who like reading these “life-hack” things. This would have the added bonus of creating a new draw to Less Wrong, of people who just want learn some practical thing (like bedroom-design or whatever) might be impressed by the quality of the analysis, (much better here than at lifehacker or ehow, IMO) and be attracted to the rest of the site. This would help achieve the core Less Wrong goal of “raising the sanity waterline” by growing the community and spreading LW memes to that group.
I’m just suggesting a possible utility-raising Coasian bargain here. Which way the “property rights” should be structured is a matter for LWs owners and mods. But if they decide that these “life-hacks” posts should have no place on LW whatsoever, I hope a new site can be created for those of us who like life-hacks, but find the quality to be lower on the current sites for the topic.
I don’t have a problem with the way things are right now, but if a lot of people are annoyed, one solution might be to create a “life-hacks” section for Less Wrong. This would have the effect of removing the posts you dislike from the discussion area (improving the signal : noise ratio from your perspective), while also improving the experience for people who like reading these “life-hack” things. This would have the added bonus of creating a new draw to Less Wrong, of people who just want learn some practical thing (like bedroom-design or whatever) might be impressed by the quality of the analysis, (much better here than at lifehacker or ehow, IMO) and be attracted to the rest of the site. This would help achieve the core Less Wrong goal of “raising the sanity waterline” by growing the community and spreading LW memes to that group.
I’m just suggesting a possible utility-raising Coasian bargain here. Which way the “property rights” should be structured is a matter for LWs owners and mods. But if they decide that these “life-hacks” posts should have no place on LW whatsoever, I hope a new site can be created for those of us who like life-hacks, but find the quality to be lower on the current sites for the topic.