The whole reason I’m writing this series is that I believe LessWrong is providing them with value, and I want it to continue doing so. However, if it doesn’t grow it will be unable to do so. People have made the comment in regard to specific tactics I suggested that they would cause the group to stop adding value, which I think is a legitimate counterargument. Do you have a specific argument here you would like to outline?
Being this suspicious of the motives of people who come to your group is not a great way to encourage growth, either.
I don’t think this is obvious. 2. If it is true, it isn’t clear that anything of the form “if it doesn’t grow at least this fast it will be unable to do so” is true, and no one has given any evidence that the LW community needs to adopt the sort of thinking you’re advocating here in order to grow at all.
Do you have a specific argument here you would like to outline?
No. As I say, what I’m uneasy about is what “the whole thing seems to presuppose”. Each individual proposal might perhaps be a good thing to do. The whole package, though, seems like its emphasis is very wrong.
Being this suspicious of the motives of people who come to your group
Well, I did take pains to mark that comment as a particularly cynical one; in case my meaning in doing so wasn’t clear, it was something like “This is probably over-suspicious, but …”. However, note that (1) you’ve said in so many words that a non-negligible fraction of your motivation (you said 20%) for posting this stuff here is to persuade people to look favourably on Mormonism, so it’s already established that it’s not true that “the whole reason I’m writing this series” is what you say it is; (2) the LDS presence on LW is really a bit suspicious (it seems to be distinctly more, or at least distinctly more visible, than e.g. that of mainstream Christianity, and I don’t think many people here will find it plausible that this is because Mormonism is much more rational than mainstream Christianity; have we perhaps been targetted?); (3) although this may well be unfair, adherents of a religion founded by a con-man (as I think just about everyone outside the LDS who’s considered the question thinks it clear that Smith was) are always liable to be viewed with some suspicion.
For the avoidance of doubt, I would put Pr(calcsam’s intentions here are not entirely honourable) no higher than about 10% -- but not much lower than about 5%, either. Much more likely is that you genuinely intend to offer helpful and beneficial advice, but that the advice is based on thinking that’s far out of sync with the values of the LW community. It might none the less happen to be good advice, but intuitively the odds don’t feel too good.
The whole reason I’m writing this series is that I believe LessWrong is providing them with value, and I want it to continue doing so. However, if it doesn’t grow it will be unable to do so. People have made the comment in regard to specific tactics I suggested that they would cause the group to stop adding value, which I think is a legitimate counterargument. Do you have a specific argument here you would like to outline?
Being this suspicious of the motives of people who come to your group is not a great way to encourage growth, either.
I don’t think this is obvious. 2. If it is true, it isn’t clear that anything of the form “if it doesn’t grow at least this fast it will be unable to do so” is true, and no one has given any evidence that the LW community needs to adopt the sort of thinking you’re advocating here in order to grow at all.
No. As I say, what I’m uneasy about is what “the whole thing seems to presuppose”. Each individual proposal might perhaps be a good thing to do. The whole package, though, seems like its emphasis is very wrong.
Well, I did take pains to mark that comment as a particularly cynical one; in case my meaning in doing so wasn’t clear, it was something like “This is probably over-suspicious, but …”. However, note that (1) you’ve said in so many words that a non-negligible fraction of your motivation (you said 20%) for posting this stuff here is to persuade people to look favourably on Mormonism, so it’s already established that it’s not true that “the whole reason I’m writing this series” is what you say it is; (2) the LDS presence on LW is really a bit suspicious (it seems to be distinctly more, or at least distinctly more visible, than e.g. that of mainstream Christianity, and I don’t think many people here will find it plausible that this is because Mormonism is much more rational than mainstream Christianity; have we perhaps been targetted?); (3) although this may well be unfair, adherents of a religion founded by a con-man (as I think just about everyone outside the LDS who’s considered the question thinks it clear that Smith was) are always liable to be viewed with some suspicion.
For the avoidance of doubt, I would put Pr(calcsam’s intentions here are not entirely honourable) no higher than about 10% -- but not much lower than about 5%, either. Much more likely is that you genuinely intend to offer helpful and beneficial advice, but that the advice is based on thinking that’s far out of sync with the values of the LW community. It might none the less happen to be good advice, but intuitively the odds don’t feel too good.
I think it’s unlikely that we’ve been targeted deliberately; I think we’re getting some people in or near the transhumanist Mormon subculture.
Oho, interesting. Thanks.