Damning allegations; but I expect this forum to respond with minimization and denial.
One quoted section is about Jessica Taylor’s post on LW, which was controversial but taken seriously. (I read a draft of the post immediately preceding it and encouraged her to post it on LW.) Is that minimization or denial?
Out of the other quoted sections (I’m not going to click thru), allegations are only against one named person; Brent Dill. We took that seriously at the time and I later banned him from LessWrong. Is that minimization or denial?
To be clear, I didn’t ban him directly for the allegations, but for related patterns of argumentation and misbehavior. I think the risks of online spaces are different from the risks of in-person spaces; like the original Oxford English Dictionary, I think Less Wrong the website should accept letters from murderers in asylums, even if those people shouldn’t be allowed to walk the streets. I think it’s good for in-person events and organizations do their part to keep their local communities welcoming and safe, while it isn’t the place of the whole internet to try to adjudicate those issues; we don’t have enough context to litigate them in a fair and wise way.
[I do not hold any positions of power in my local Berkeley rationalist scene, but am nevertheless open to hear people’s worries and try to pass them on to people who are in the appropriate positions of power to do something about it.]
One quoted section is about Jessica Taylor’s post on LW, which was controversial but taken seriously. (I read a draft of the post immediately preceding it and encouraged her to post it on LW.) Is that minimization or denial?
Out of the other quoted sections (I’m not going to click thru), allegations are only against one named person; Brent Dill. We took that seriously at the time and I later banned him from LessWrong. Is that minimization or denial?
To be clear, I didn’t ban him directly for the allegations, but for related patterns of argumentation and misbehavior. I think the risks of online spaces are different from the risks of in-person spaces; like the original Oxford English Dictionary, I think Less Wrong the website should accept letters from murderers in asylums, even if those people shouldn’t be allowed to walk the streets. I think it’s good for in-person events and organizations do their part to keep their local communities welcoming and safe, while it isn’t the place of the whole internet to try to adjudicate those issues; we don’t have enough context to litigate them in a fair and wise way.
[I do not hold any positions of power in my local Berkeley rationalist scene, but am nevertheless open to hear people’s worries and try to pass them on to people who are in the appropriate positions of power to do something about it.]