As a semi-lurker, this likely would have been very helpful for me.
One problem that I had is a lack of introduction to posting. You can read everything, but its hard to learn how to post well without practice. As others have remarked, bad posts get smacked down fairly hard, so this makes it hard for people to get practice… vicious cycle. Having this could create an area where people who are not confident enough to post to the full site could get practice and confidence.
I wonder if experienced, high-karma posters should offer to take on apprentices, or something. Would that be valuable? Does anybody want to be my apprentice and try it out?
I agree with JoshuaZ that it might result in the construction of ‘cliques’, though I think the word we’re looking for is “competing schools of thought”. It’s the ordinary way of things in academia, particularly philosophy.
Not sure. I guess I’d make myself available to vet comments before posting, explain LW-related concepts that can be conveyed quicker or more effectively in conversations than by trawling the archives, and possibly introduce the apprentice to other people who I know from LW and are willing to be friendly.
Some feature that lets us share read and write access to post drafts would be nice for this reason: make it easier to get feedback on articles before giving them to the wolves. It would also be nice to have a way to coauthor posts as there are lots of benefits to cooperating on projects.
One nice feature for the site would be the ability to give others read and write access to one’s post drafts. First, so that beginners could get feedback from vets before posting. Second, because it would enable coauthoring posts which would be nifty and encourage cooperation on different projects.
This seems like a bad idea. Such apprenticeships would likely result in even further groupthink and could also result in the construction of cliques and political factions.
Your response was more serious mine. I was thinking of fun rules we can apply..
APPRENTICES MUST SHOW DEFERRENCE TO THEIR MENTORS BY UP-VOTING EVERY COMMENT MADE BY THEIR MENTOR
MENTORS MUST EXPLAIN EVERY DOWNVOTE (which means sometimes they’ll need to make something up and this will encourage people to come forward with their real objections)
Of course, rules are between the mentor and mentee and needn’t be made public.
I avoided this problem by using a hard-to-Google pseudonym, figuring that I could always make a new account or just stop posting if I majorly screwed up. I don’t know if pseudonymity alone would reassure other lurkers, though; framing it as fictional roleplaying might be more useful for people who aren’t me.
ETA: perhaps adding a reminder to the FAQ that pseudonymity is acceptable would help? And linking the FAQ more prominently.
Personally, pseudonymity wasn’t that helpful, its not that I didn’t want to risk my good name or something, as much as that I just didn’t want to be publicly wrong among intelligent people. Even if people didn’t know that the comment was from me per se, they were still (hypothetically) disagreeing with my ideas and I would still know that the post was mine. For me it was more hyperbolic discounting than it was rational cost-benefit analysis.
As a semi-lurker, this likely would have been very helpful for me. One problem that I had is a lack of introduction to posting. You can read everything, but its hard to learn how to post well without practice. As others have remarked, bad posts get smacked down fairly hard, so this makes it hard for people to get practice… vicious cycle. Having this could create an area where people who are not confident enough to post to the full site could get practice and confidence.
I wonder if experienced, high-karma posters should offer to take on apprentices, or something. Would that be valuable? Does anybody want to be my apprentice and try it out?
That’s so crazy that it just might work!
I agree with JoshuaZ that it might result in the construction of ‘cliques’, though I think the word we’re looking for is “competing schools of thought”. It’s the ordinary way of things in academia, particularly philosophy.
What would this entail?
Not sure. I guess I’d make myself available to vet comments before posting, explain LW-related concepts that can be conveyed quicker or more effectively in conversations than by trawling the archives, and possibly introduce the apprentice to other people who I know from LW and are willing to be friendly.
Some feature that lets us share read and write access to post drafts would be nice for this reason: make it easier to get feedback on articles before giving them to the wolves. It would also be nice to have a way to coauthor posts as there are lots of benefits to cooperating on projects.
One nice feature for the site would be the ability to give others read and write access to one’s post drafts. First, so that beginners could get feedback from vets before posting. Second, because it would enable coauthoring posts which would be nifty and encourage cooperation on different projects.
Mentoring.
Is that an addition or a summary?
Summary. “Apprenticing” seems to imply something else to several people here.
This seems like a bad idea. Such apprenticeships would likely result in even further groupthink and could also result in the construction of cliques and political factions.
Your response was more serious mine. I was thinking of fun rules we can apply..
APPRENTICES MUST SHOW DEFERRENCE TO THEIR MENTORS BY UP-VOTING EVERY COMMENT MADE BY THEIR MENTOR
MENTORS MUST EXPLAIN EVERY DOWNVOTE (which means sometimes they’ll need to make something up and this will encourage people to come forward with their real objections)
Of course, rules are between the mentor and mentee and needn’t be made public.
I avoided this problem by using a hard-to-Google pseudonym, figuring that I could always make a new account or just stop posting if I majorly screwed up. I don’t know if pseudonymity alone would reassure other lurkers, though; framing it as fictional roleplaying might be more useful for people who aren’t me.
ETA: perhaps adding a reminder to the FAQ that pseudonymity is acceptable would help? And linking the FAQ more prominently.
Personally, pseudonymity wasn’t that helpful, its not that I didn’t want to risk my good name or something, as much as that I just didn’t want to be publicly wrong among intelligent people. Even if people didn’t know that the comment was from me per se, they were still (hypothetically) disagreeing with my ideas and I would still know that the post was mine. For me it was more hyperbolic discounting than it was rational cost-benefit analysis.