I think a serious issue with posting content on Less Wrong, and why I don’t do it beyond link posts, is that Less Wrong feels like a ghetto, in that it’s a place only for an outcast subset of the population. I don’t feel like I can just share Less Wrong articles to many places because Less Wrong lacks respectability in wider society and is only respectable with those who are part of the LW ghetto’s culture.
This doesn’t mean the ghetto needs to be destroyed, but it does suggest that many of our brightest folks will seek other venues for expression that are more respectable, even if it’s dropping (rising) to the neutral level of respectability offered by an anonymous blog. We might come home and prefer to live in LW (the discussions), but an important part of our public selves is oriented towards participating with the larger world.
Maybe as a reader you’d like Less Wrong to be a better place to read things again, just as the average person living in a ghetto may prefer for its luminaries to continue to focus their efforts inward and thus make the ghetto better on average, but as a writer Less Wrong doesn’t feel to me like a place I want to work unless I don’t think I can make myself respectable to a wider audience.
Not quite. I think there’s a three-way distinction to be made here, between being (1) small (not many users), (2) niche-y (users are unusual in some way), and (3) creepy (users are unusual in some highly displeasing way). If LW “feels like a ghetto” for an “outcast subset of the population” that “lacks respectability”, I think that’s #2 or #3 rather than just #1, and I’m curious exactly what gworley has in mind.
I don’t feel like I can just share Less Wrong articles to many places because Less Wrong lacks respectability in wider society and is only respectable with those who are part of the LW ghetto’s culture.
That’s mostly a CSS problem. The respectability of a linked LW article would, I think, be dramatically increased if the place looked more professional. Are there any web designers in the audience?
I think a serious issue with posting content on Less Wrong, and why I don’t do it beyond link posts, is that Less Wrong feels like a ghetto, in that it’s a place only for an outcast subset of the population. I don’t feel like I can just share Less Wrong articles to many places because Less Wrong lacks respectability in wider society and is only respectable with those who are part of the LW ghetto’s culture.
This doesn’t mean the ghetto needs to be destroyed, but it does suggest that many of our brightest folks will seek other venues for expression that are more respectable, even if it’s dropping (rising) to the neutral level of respectability offered by an anonymous blog. We might come home and prefer to live in LW (the discussions), but an important part of our public selves is oriented towards participating with the larger world.
Maybe as a reader you’d like Less Wrong to be a better place to read things again, just as the average person living in a ghetto may prefer for its luminaries to continue to focus their efforts inward and thus make the ghetto better on average, but as a writer Less Wrong doesn’t feel to me like a place I want to work unless I don’t think I can make myself respectable to a wider audience.
+1; I think this is a major part of my reluctance to write top-level posts in Discussion.
Do you think the Less Wrong of, say, two years ago was less ghetto-ish?
no
This could be estimated by the number of new users per month. (Excluding the sockpuppets.)
Not quite. I think there’s a three-way distinction to be made here, between being (1) small (not many users), (2) niche-y (users are unusual in some way), and (3) creepy (users are unusual in some highly displeasing way). If LW “feels like a ghetto” for an “outcast subset of the population” that “lacks respectability”, I think that’s #2 or #3 rather than just #1, and I’m curious exactly what gworley has in mind.
I wouldn’t have come up with #2 and #3, but those are definitely related to the issue.
That’s mostly a CSS problem. The respectability of a linked LW article would, I think, be dramatically increased if the place looked more professional. Are there any web designers in the audience?
Not quite. In some corners of the ’net LW has… a reputation.
Yes, I know. I bet Islamists don’t think highly of it either.
I bet Islamists don’t think of it.