I think this has at least some truth to it. Keep in mind that there is an IRC channel, though I am not sure how much it gets used. I would endorse the creation of subreddit for rationalists (which would encourage all manner of offtopic discussions) as opposed to a subreddit for discussion of rationality.
Two corrections: I think you mean ‘bonding’ in the title, and I think you mean ‘price’ not ‘prise’ in the 2nd to last paragraph.
Might it be a good idea to feature the IRC channel more centrally on the website? Eliezer’s concern notwithstanding, if I’m going to kill time anyway (and believe me, I’m going to anyway), it might be nice to do so in a busy LW IRC room. I could think of less productive things to do for an hour.
I have already gained what feels like a fair bit of positive effect in my life from including LW as part of my Internet-as-television time. So LW-related stuff as Internet time sink is not necessarily a bad thing if you can keep a lid on it. If IRC can do the reminding to be less dumb as well, then good.
I used to frequent the IRC, and still go there occasionally, but in my experience it suffers from a bad case of Well Kept Gardens Die By Pacifism. There are no moderators, no gate keeping process, etc. and as a result the quality of discussion usually sucks. Many people there are not even interested in rationality at all.
I’d NOT recommend it, nor linking to it prominently on the site.
Your experience probably had more to do with your question-asking style than the regulars not being interested in rationality. Some styles that work well in other environments do not work as well in IRC. I noticed a lot of your questions there (if I’m remembering right—I could have you confused with someone else) were very broad and sweeping, and you didn’t stick around long enough or refine them enough to get them answered properly.
The best way to do IRC is to ask the question (after first narrowing it down to the part you are most interested in hearing an answer to), and stay logged in for a while after you ask it. It may be that the people who are logged in and paying attention do not have anything to say on the topic, but someone who is idling will come back and look through the logs and answer it.
I think this has at least some truth to it. Keep in mind that there is an IRC channel, though I am not sure how much it gets used. I would endorse the creation of subreddit for rationalists (which would encourage all manner of offtopic discussions) as opposed to a subreddit for discussion of rationality.
Two corrections: I think you mean ‘bonding’ in the title, and I think you mean ‘price’ not ‘prise’ in the 2nd to last paragraph.
Might it be a good idea to feature the IRC channel more centrally on the website? Eliezer’s concern notwithstanding, if I’m going to kill time anyway (and believe me, I’m going to anyway), it might be nice to do so in a busy LW IRC room. I could think of less productive things to do for an hour.
I have already gained what feels like a fair bit of positive effect in my life from including LW as part of my Internet-as-television time. So LW-related stuff as Internet time sink is not necessarily a bad thing if you can keep a lid on it. If IRC can do the reminding to be less dumb as well, then good.
I agree.
I used to frequent the IRC, and still go there occasionally, but in my experience it suffers from a bad case of Well Kept Gardens Die By Pacifism. There are no moderators, no gate keeping process, etc. and as a result the quality of discussion usually sucks. Many people there are not even interested in rationality at all.
I’d NOT recommend it, nor linking to it prominently on the site.
Actually there are moderators and the regulars are interested in rationality. Personally I think the discussion is good as well.
EDIT: I’m no longer so sure about this.
huh? maybe we’re talking about different rooms?
Your experience probably had more to do with your question-asking style than the regulars not being interested in rationality. Some styles that work well in other environments do not work as well in IRC. I noticed a lot of your questions there (if I’m remembering right—I could have you confused with someone else) were very broad and sweeping, and you didn’t stick around long enough or refine them enough to get them answered properly.
The best way to do IRC is to ask the question (after first narrowing it down to the part you are most interested in hearing an answer to), and stay logged in for a while after you ask it. It may be that the people who are logged in and paying attention do not have anything to say on the topic, but someone who is idling will come back and look through the logs and answer it.
Nope. We’re both talking about #lesswrong @ freenode.
Good to know.
Yeah, it sees some decent use every day.