“Posts” are usually “about themselves”. For example, SSC has posts with no comments section. For counter-examples, see posts like Reasonable Explanations—the author is interested in comments that fit a certain format, the body of the post has the rules for (top-level) comments, and the author posts a comment (that fits the format) as a starter.
This is a format for a “Discussion”. If an author includes both the rules and the starter in the “post” body, it’s still a “Discussion”. If the OP expounds an idea, and includes examples (usually of a certain form) and suggests people comment other things they think might be examples, that is both a “Post” and a “Discussion”.
The Monthly threads are of course “Discussion”-like, though they’re more free form—a “Discussion” with no rules*.
*Since this is LessWrong, both LessWrong’s rules apply, and ways people here prefer things be discussed—this is why “The Sequences” are emphasized. The second type, not being laid out in a short explicit set of rules are at times “broken”, leading to conflict.
Some (if not all) sites are about ideas. This site does it by “one-off” methods for presenting ideas. These may be contrasted with systems that present an idea, but (may) continually change the presentation (non-automatically), such as wikis. What might a site look like if it tried for more integration?
(Bending the format:)
What if comments sections, rather than staying fixed in their attachments to (a) post, roamed around?
ETA: What is an actually good way of getting combinations of ideas/comparing how similar problems are solved in different fields?
From the other direction—Ideas are in posts. This is part of why re-runs exist—to send the idea out again, to reflect, and to bring comments on the idea to life again.
When a post is run the first time there are comments. When a post is re-run (unchanged), the idea may already be out there (it’s possible all the readers have read it), but there are new comments. In this way, the comments section on the re-run is still about the same thing, absent changes resulting from time, it’s just comments 2.0. It’s also fresh—when I read The Sequences, I did not read all the comments.
(Bending the format.)
Setting up a comments section so that is possible would require a redesign, and probably work against the reasons they were set up the way they are. (Which is why The Sequences were made into a book instead.) I haven’t seen a lot of sites do this intentionally. There are blogs with no comments sections anywhere, but making a set readable by making it empty is trivial.
Things that becomes “finished” (‘Posts’) versus Things that don’t (‘Lists’):
Finished: Posts/Comments are (individually) created, then submitted.
Common Exceptions: “Update” may be appended to the end, followed by content. Alternatively, changes may be made, and described in a section added to the end marked “Edit”.
Un-Finished: All Posts, All Questions, All Sequences (The Library). These lists keeps changing.
While a List may come to an end, if all Lists die (and stay dead), that’s a sufficient condition for the site to be considered dead.
That’s not to say the site would be dead if there stopped being new posts for a time—if people started revising their posts, and submitting those changes, discussion of ideas (and the life of the site) could continue—but then the currently existing posts would “living lists” while “all posts” would be dead.
Some ideas on structure:
“Posts” are usually “about themselves”. For example, SSC has posts with no comments section. For counter-examples, see posts like Reasonable Explanations—the author is interested in comments that fit a certain format, the body of the post has the rules for (top-level) comments, and the author posts a comment (that fits the format) as a starter.
This is a format for a “Discussion”. If an author includes both the rules and the starter in the “post” body, it’s still a “Discussion”. If the OP expounds an idea, and includes examples (usually of a certain form) and suggests people comment other things they think might be examples, that is both a “Post” and a “Discussion”.
The Monthly threads are of course “Discussion”-like, though they’re more free form—a “Discussion” with no rules*.
*Since this is LessWrong, both LessWrong’s rules apply, and ways people here prefer things be discussed—this is why “The Sequences” are emphasized. The second type, not being laid out in a short explicit set of rules are at times “broken”, leading to conflict.
The value of structure, including linearity. (A lens.)
Some (if not all) sites are about ideas. This site does it by “one-off” methods for presenting ideas. These may be contrasted with systems that present an idea, but (may) continually change the presentation (non-automatically), such as wikis. What might a site look like if it tried for more integration?
(Bending the format:)
What if comments sections, rather than staying fixed in their attachments to (a) post, roamed around?
ETA: What is an actually good way of getting combinations of ideas/comparing how similar problems are solved in different fields?
From the other direction—Ideas are in posts. This is part of why re-runs exist—to send the idea out again, to reflect, and to bring comments on the idea to life again.
When a post is run the first time there are comments. When a post is re-run (unchanged), the idea may already be out there (it’s possible all the readers have read it), but there are new comments. In this way, the comments section on the re-run is still about the same thing, absent changes resulting from time, it’s just comments 2.0. It’s also fresh—when I read The Sequences, I did not read all the comments.
(Bending the format.)
Setting up a comments section so that is possible would require a redesign, and probably work against the reasons they were set up the way they are. (Which is why The Sequences were made into a book instead.) I haven’t seen a lot of sites do this intentionally. There are blogs with no comments sections anywhere, but making a set readable by making it empty is trivial.
Things that becomes “finished” (‘Posts’) versus Things that don’t (‘Lists’):
Finished: Posts/Comments are (individually) created, then submitted.
Common Exceptions: “Update” may be appended to the end, followed by content. Alternatively, changes may be made, and described in a section added to the end marked “Edit”.
Un-Finished: All Posts, All Questions, All Sequences (The Library). These lists keeps changing.
While a List may come to an end, if all Lists die (and stay dead), that’s a sufficient condition for the site to be considered dead.
That’s not to say the site would be dead if there stopped being new posts for a time—if people started revising their posts, and submitting those changes, discussion of ideas (and the life of the site) could continue—but then the currently existing posts would “living lists” while “all posts” would be dead.
The pattern seem to be “Lists”, which can go on forever, contain “items” which have a short life.
Two ways on looking at things:
1) See what this website calls, say, “Posts”. Look for patterns. (Practice → Theory.)
2) Consider different Ideas, and look at what ‘implements’ them. (Theory → Practice.)
This is why what the site designates “comments” are often referred to by users as “posts”—they implement the same idea.