I doubt this will be seen, since I came across this late, but I think the most valuable thing for the Less Wrong community would be private subreddits for various caucuses that are underrepresented in the population of LW.
This would include:
Women
Global majority/People of Color
Queer/LGBT
Neurodiverse/Differently abled
This would:
Seed more projects like the LW Women’s post series
Provide support when the main LW community is abrasive/insulting/alienating to people from various groups
It would be important that these subreddits be private, and that access only be granted to people that have verified their identities somehow with moderators. On Reddit, subreddits that attempt to be safe spaces are relentlessly harassed by people who don’t think those spaces should exist, and they become exactly the opposite of what they’ve set out to become.
If such a subreddit for non-Americans was created I’d be curious to take a look at it, though I don’t know if I’d stick around.
Queer/LGBT
Neurodiverse/Differently abled
I’m not sure these are underrepresented on LW—for example, 13.8% of respondents on the last survey were homosexual or bisexual, whereas most figures here are in the single digits.
That is, I understand the benefits you’re estimating, I’m interested in your thoughts about why those benefits provide more expected value than the expected costs, and why the net-benefit of this set of subreddits is higher than other sets?
Well, in my opinion this is the best single action a LW admin could take, because I think the tacit sexism and racism on LW prevents most humans (who are neither white nor male) from taking the teachings of Yudkowsky seriously, and I think that fixing the representation problem would go a long way towards solving that. Once the global majority are able to take LW seriously, it’ll spread much faster, and the world will become more rational.
All the other suggestions I saw previously were just ways to split up existing discussion on LW by categories, whereas this will hopefully bring new people and types of discussion to the community.
I also think that this has near-zero costs besides some moderator effort. Parts of the LW community will be irritated by the idea of spaces that exclude them, because they’re white men who have never been excluded, but in the long run, those people aren’t very valuable to LW, because they serve to alienate people who aren’t white men, and most people aren’t white men.
I doubt this will be seen, since I came across this late, but I think the most valuable thing for the Less Wrong community would be private subreddits for various caucuses that are underrepresented in the population of LW.
This would include:
Women
Global majority/People of Color
Queer/LGBT
Neurodiverse/Differently abled
This would:
Seed more projects like the LW Women’s post series
Provide support when the main LW community is abrasive/insulting/alienating to people from various groups
It would be important that these subreddits be private, and that access only be granted to people that have verified their identities somehow with moderators. On Reddit, subreddits that attempt to be safe spaces are relentlessly harassed by people who don’t think those spaces should exist, and they become exactly the opposite of what they’ve set out to become.
If such a subreddit for non-Americans was created I’d be curious to take a look at it, though I don’t know if I’d stick around.
I’m not sure these are underrepresented on LW—for example, 13.8% of respondents on the last survey were homosexual or bisexual, whereas most figures here are in the single digits.
Why is this the most valuable thing?
That is, I understand the benefits you’re estimating, I’m interested in your thoughts about why those benefits provide more expected value than the expected costs, and why the net-benefit of this set of subreddits is higher than other sets?
Well, in my opinion this is the best single action a LW admin could take, because I think the tacit sexism and racism on LW prevents most humans (who are neither white nor male) from taking the teachings of Yudkowsky seriously, and I think that fixing the representation problem would go a long way towards solving that. Once the global majority are able to take LW seriously, it’ll spread much faster, and the world will become more rational.
All the other suggestions I saw previously were just ways to split up existing discussion on LW by categories, whereas this will hopefully bring new people and types of discussion to the community.
I also think that this has near-zero costs besides some moderator effort. Parts of the LW community will be irritated by the idea of spaces that exclude them, because they’re white men who have never been excluded, but in the long run, those people aren’t very valuable to LW, because they serve to alienate people who aren’t white men, and most people aren’t white men.
OK. Thanks for clarifying.