I personally would be in favor of a better word than “debate”. The feature as I expect it to be used is really just “a public conversation that all the participants have signed up for in-advance, around a somewhat legible topic, where individual contributions can’t be voted on to not have it become a popularity context, and where the participants can have high-trust conversations because everyone is pre-vetted”.
We could just call them “conversations” but that feels pretty confusing to me. I would be pretty open to other names for the feature. Agree that “debate” has connotations of trying to convince the audience, and being in some kind of zero-sum competition, whereas this whole feature is trying to reduce exactly that.
Hmm, I kind of like that. “Dialogue” does feel like it has pretty good connotations. “Invite X to dialogue with you” feels like it also works reasonably well. “Dialogue participants”. Yeah, I feel sold on this being better than “debate”.
I also think it’s more natural for a dialogue feature to be used for a debate, than it is for a debate feature to be used for a dialogue. A dialogue is a more agnostic term for the structure of the conversation, and I expect some rationalists will want to bring in specific norms for different conversations (e.g. “you’re defending your position from the other two, and she’s the facilitator”).
(Seriously, some explicit distinction between “dialogue as collaboration”, “dialogue as debate” and “dialogue as explanation” would be nice. Not necessary at all, but nice.)
Upon reflection, it seems I was focused on the framing rather than the mechanism, which in of itself doesn’t necessarily do all the bad things I described. The framing is important though. I definitely think you should change the name.
FiveThirtyEight has done something similar in the past they called a chat.
I personally would be in favor of a better word than “debate”. The feature as I expect it to be used is really just “a public conversation that all the participants have signed up for in-advance, around a somewhat legible topic, where individual contributions can’t be voted on to not have it become a popularity context, and where the participants can have high-trust conversations because everyone is pre-vetted”.
We could just call them “conversations” but that feels pretty confusing to me. I would be pretty open to other names for the feature. Agree that “debate” has connotations of trying to convince the audience, and being in some kind of zero-sum competition, whereas this whole feature is trying to reduce exactly that.
“New Dialogue”
Hmm, I kind of like that. “Dialogue” does feel like it has pretty good connotations. “Invite X to dialogue with you” feels like it also works reasonably well. “Dialogue participants”. Yeah, I feel sold on this being better than “debate”.
I also think it’s more natural for a dialogue feature to be used for a debate, than it is for a debate feature to be used for a dialogue. A dialogue is a more agnostic term for the structure of the conversation, and I expect some rationalists will want to bring in specific norms for different conversations (e.g. “you’re defending your position from the other two, and she’s the facilitator”).
Peregrin/Periklynian/Suvinian Dialog!
(Seriously, some explicit distinction between “dialogue as collaboration”, “dialogue as debate” and “dialogue as explanation” would be nice. Not necessary at all, but nice.)
Other handles that have made me excited about this feature:
Glowfic for nonfiction
Interview podcast but written down.
In both cases the draw was “the interactivity makes it easier to write relevant things, compared to sitting down by myself and guessing”.
Upon reflection, it seems I was focused on the framing rather than the mechanism, which in of itself doesn’t necessarily do all the bad things I described. The framing is important though. I definitely think you should change the name.
FiveThirtyEight has done something similar in the past they called a chat.