I think that the thing LW is trying to do is hard. I think that there’s a legitimate split in the community, around the things you’re calling “cyber-bullying”—I think there should be a place for crockers rules style combat culture reasoning, but I also want a community that is charitable and respectful and kind while maintaining good epistemics.
I also think there’s a legitimate split in the community around the things you’re calling “epistemically sketchy”—I think there should be a place for post-rational ponderings, but I also think there should be a place for not catering to them..
I have an impression that LW is trying to cater to both sides of the splits, and basically ending up in a middle ground that no one wants, driving a lot of the most interesting posters away.
That being said, I’m quite impressed by the team running LW. I’m quite impressed by the product that is LW. I’m also quite impressed by the experiments and direction of LW—I perceive it as actively getting better over time, and grappling with hard questions. I don’t know a better place to put things to create common knowledge about things I with were common knowledge in the rationalist community, and I expect that things I put there will benefit from the improvements over time.
I think that the mods are justifiably being very careful about imposing norms, because splitting the community is very dangerous, but I do have a small amount of faith they’ll navigate it correctly—enough to make posting on there worth it.
In response to a “sell LW to me” post:
I think that the thing LW is trying to do is hard. I think that there’s a legitimate split in the community, around the things you’re calling “cyber-bullying”—I think there should be a place for crockers rules style combat culture reasoning, but I also want a community that is charitable and respectful and kind while maintaining good epistemics.
I also think there’s a legitimate split in the community around the things you’re calling “epistemically sketchy”—I think there should be a place for post-rational ponderings, but I also think there should be a place for not catering to them..
I have an impression that LW is trying to cater to both sides of the splits, and basically ending up in a middle ground that no one wants, driving a lot of the most interesting posters away.
That being said, I’m quite impressed by the team running LW. I’m quite impressed by the product that is LW. I’m also quite impressed by the experiments and direction of LW—I perceive it as actively getting better over time, and grappling with hard questions. I don’t know a better place to put things to create common knowledge about things I with were common knowledge in the rationalist community, and I expect that things I put there will benefit from the improvements over time.
I think that the mods are justifiably being very careful about imposing norms, because splitting the community is very dangerous, but I do have a small amount of faith they’ll navigate it correctly—enough to make posting on there worth it.