Maybe showing (upvotes—downvotes) by default and upvotes/(upvotes + downvotes)*100% on mouseover isn’t the optimal way to do it. (Also, this means that “The difference between 55% and 44% seems unimportant, because we don’t use majority voting in LW anyway” isn’t fully true.)
Good point on majority voting. It matters a lot whether a comment has 18 upvotes and 14 downvotes or 14 upvotes and 18 downvotes. So a relatively narrow majority on polarized subjects can give you important control over the conversation.
a relatively narrow majority on polarized subjects can give you important control over the conversation.
The proper way to fix this is to agree to downvote all mindkilled comments regardless of whether they “support our side”.
If we cannot agree on this norm… goodbye rationality.
If we can agree on voting on comments by criteria other than “my tribe or the other tribe”, then we have a chance for a meaningful discussion.
Specifically:
Someone posts a comment promoting tribe X, without any rationalist merit. -- Proper reaction: downvote.
Someone posts a comment suggesting we need to discourage members of tribe X from participating on LW. -- Proper reaction: also a downvote.
Maybe showing (upvotes—downvotes) by default and upvotes/(upvotes + downvotes)*100% on mouseover isn’t the optimal way to do it. (Also, this means that “The difference between 55% and 44% seems unimportant, because we don’t use majority voting in LW anyway” isn’t fully true.)
Good point on majority voting. It matters a lot whether a comment has 18 upvotes and 14 downvotes or 14 upvotes and 18 downvotes. So a relatively narrow majority on polarized subjects can give you important control over the conversation.
The proper way to fix this is to agree to downvote all mindkilled comments regardless of whether they “support our side”.
If we cannot agree on this norm… goodbye rationality.
If we can agree on voting on comments by criteria other than “my tribe or the other tribe”, then we have a chance for a meaningful discussion.
Specifically:
Someone posts a comment promoting tribe X, without any rationalist merit. -- Proper reaction: downvote.
Someone posts a comment suggesting we need to discourage members of tribe X from participating on LW. -- Proper reaction: also a downvote.