If the option was left in the preferences menu (roughly where the anti-kibitzer is kept) I expect a small minority (about one in ten posters) to actually flip the Crocker bit. I actually think the level of politeness expected towards people who do turn on Crocker’s Rules will be more interesting: there is a mentality that translates “politeness required: 0” into “politeness required: arbitrarily large negative number” (“no need to be polite” → “be extremely rude”), and I think there’s a nonzero chance of that mentality being present on LW.
there is a mentality that translates “politeness required: 0” into “politeness required: arbitrarily large negative number” (“no need to be polite” → “be extremely rude”), and I think there’s a nonzero chance of that mentality being present on LW.
Yeah, I’ve thought of that. If such a feature were to be added, it would probably be good to try to preempt that effect (and other possible problems) with a “The proper use of Crocker’s Rules” post, so people will at least be mindful of those pitfalls in advance.
If the option was left in the preferences menu (roughly where the anti-kibitzer is kept) I expect a small minority (about one in ten posters) to actually flip the Crocker bit. I actually think the level of politeness expected towards people who do turn on Crocker’s Rules will be more interesting: there is a mentality that translates “politeness required: 0” into “politeness required: arbitrarily large negative number” (“no need to be polite” → “be extremely rude”), and I think there’s a nonzero chance of that mentality being present on LW.
Yeah, I’ve thought of that. If such a feature were to be added, it would probably be good to try to preempt that effect (and other possible problems) with a “The proper use of Crocker’s Rules” post, so people will at least be mindful of those pitfalls in advance.