Why did you trash the old HPMOR.com?

AnnoyedReader6 Mar 2023 1:55 UTC
55 points
68 comments2 min readLW link

I am very disappointed.

Now I’m sure you’d have to see it to believe it, but you see, just today I was rereading my favorite book, HPMOR, for the fourth time, and I clicked to go on to the next chapter, and to my surprise, there was no next chapter! Which is pretty crazy, considering there was a next chapter last time. Instead it just dropped me on LessWrong (on the HPMOR page). As an enjoyer of the old HPMOR.com site I just wanted to express my frustration.

Now I’m not trying to complain about LessWrong here. I actually like LessWrong, and sometimes I read posts on here. There are many forum and social media sites, and it does seem to me that LessWrong is one of the better ones. I mean if I found out that HMPOR.com was being shut down and instead we would be forced to read it as a series of Facebook posts, I would be much more angry. But still, the best way to run a social media site, and the best way to publish an ebook cannot possibly coincide. (Or, on second thought, perhaps they might, since they’re both sort of publishers, but I’m specifically annoyed about this specific merger.)

The thing is, I already knew about HMPOR being on LessWrong. But I chose to read on HPMOR.com anyway, because that is what I preferred. One annoying thing about LessWrong for this, is that if I scroll up at all (even just slightly) while reading a long post (or chapter?) the annoying banner at the top of the screen shows up, making it difficult to include the specific text on the screen which you wanted. HMPOR.com didn’t have that problem. But there are many frustrations. I feel like in the past, I had the choice, and now that choice has been taken away from me.

I have, at times, been accused of not liking change. (I think it’s more a feeling that changes should optional, and people shouldn’t be forced into new things they don’t want.) But I feel like there are many circumstances where it should be clear change is not a good idea? Like, if you make something that people specifically seek out, instead of other things they could go for, well, among things, from whoever wants it’s point of view, it is one of the better ones. Perhaps even one of the best things. And then if it is changed, well, most changes of something so atypical (from any point of view) tend to be reversions to the mean. So if you like something a lot, you shouldn’t want it to change, or at least should be worried about potential change.

I think this is also why sequels tend to be worse than originals. If something is a big deal and people demand a sequel, that thing was probably atypically good. So even with the same author and universe, you should expect to get a reversion to the mean. And you do.

AnnoyedReader6 Mar 2023 1:55 UTC
55 points
68 comments2 min readLW link