I generally avoid commenting only if I feel I have nothing relevant to say. The only thing that makes me delete a comment mid-writing is realising that I’m writing something that’s wrong.
If I notice I made a mistake mid-discussion, or after I’ve already posted a comment people read, I admit it, and I’ve seen that usually up-votes show it’s appreciated.
Usually when I comment it’s because I have… let’s call them “political beliefs”, though they are always about concrete things and decisions, that are a lot more “left leaning” than the average position here. As long as I’m confident in my reasons for having such beliefs, I don’t seem to worry about my reputation at all, even if I think I’m about to say something “unpopular”. As long as I’m willing to explain myself and change my mind if I’m wrong, I think that holding back on expressing such ideas makes the site weaker and betrays its spirit (I do try to keep the discussion as much apolitical as possible). I don’t comment unpopular opinions if I don’t think I can put on the effort to explain them well.
Often commenting on LessWrong is an useful test for my belief in something, the thought of having to justify your disagreement with the “smart kids club” makes me check more on my reasons for believing things, and put forward some research work.
The reputation system seems to work fine for me, since it gets me to improve. The few times I tried discussing in PMs something, it turned out less confrontational and more productive, though, so I think that’s a good approach (and it’s much more enjoyable).
I do feel stupid and irritated each time I get down-voted, since I try to not comment on stuff that I don’t know about or to write shallow statements I can’t help but think “wow, whoever this person was is very biased against my idea” which… likely isn’t a mature reaction. I’d like to know why I get down voted, though.
I’m a hundred times more self conscious about making posts, though. I feel the stress of having a post come under the scrutiny of the community would make me obsessively edit and quadruple-check everything, so at least four ideas for posts died out this way without any good reason (so far I’ve managed to post just two questions).
Using an anonymous account or something like that wouldn’t work at all, I’m not concerned about lesswrongers writing off Emiya as an idiot, I’m afraid of me thinking I’m an idiot because my ideas got shredded apart which… is not a way of thinking about this that’s in any way good or useful, and it’s hindering my progress, so I should really try to break through it.
I generally avoid commenting only if I feel I have nothing relevant to say. The only thing that makes me delete a comment mid-writing is realising that I’m writing something that’s wrong.
If I notice I made a mistake mid-discussion, or after I’ve already posted a comment people read, I admit it, and I’ve seen that usually up-votes show it’s appreciated.
Usually when I comment it’s because I have… let’s call them “political beliefs”, though they are always about concrete things and decisions, that are a lot more “left leaning” than the average position here. As long as I’m confident in my reasons for having such beliefs, I don’t seem to worry about my reputation at all, even if I think I’m about to say something “unpopular”. As long as I’m willing to explain myself and change my mind if I’m wrong, I think that holding back on expressing such ideas makes the site weaker and betrays its spirit (I do try to keep the discussion as much apolitical as possible). I don’t comment unpopular opinions if I don’t think I can put on the effort to explain them well.
Often commenting on LessWrong is an useful test for my belief in something, the thought of having to justify your disagreement with the “smart kids club” makes me check more on my reasons for believing things, and put forward some research work.
The reputation system seems to work fine for me, since it gets me to improve. The few times I tried discussing in PMs something, it turned out less confrontational and more productive, though, so I think that’s a good approach (and it’s much more enjoyable).
I also try to remember making short comments of agreement to make our kind cooperate.
I do feel stupid and irritated each time I get down-voted, since I try to not comment on stuff that I don’t know about or to write shallow statements I can’t help but think “wow, whoever this person was is very biased against my idea” which… likely isn’t a mature reaction. I’d like to know why I get down voted, though.
I’m a hundred times more self conscious about making posts, though. I feel the stress of having a post come under the scrutiny of the community would make me obsessively edit and quadruple-check everything, so at least four ideas for posts died out this way without any good reason (so far I’ve managed to post just two questions).
Using an anonymous account or something like that wouldn’t work at all, I’m not concerned about lesswrongers writing off Emiya as an idiot, I’m afraid of me thinking I’m an idiot because my ideas got shredded apart which… is not a way of thinking about this that’s in any way good or useful, and it’s hindering my progress, so I should really try to break through it.