I’m unclear on what exactly I would tell you, but assuming there exists a useful answer to that question other than “y’know, stuff”, I’m game. Also, given that there are so few, anonymity may not be anonymity (my writing style’s probably recognizable to some; any individual incident I’ve probably already told all my friends about so it’ll be recognized at least by those; etc.); how would you work around that?
This comment actually gave me An Idea, so thank you!
Idea- In the Call for Responses post, there could be a Ask the Women thread, where people can submit questions. If you want a question answered, upvote it.
When the women write their responses, they can use the questions as prompts. A question that gets many upvotes will probably be written on by more women, thus getting more data. But if you want to respond to a more lower voted question, you can (or just say whatever you want to say)
I would say that the submitted questions will be assumed to be answered using Crocker’s Rules, no exceptions. What we want is a more stream-of-consciousness, gut-level reaction . Not self-censored, want-to-be-polite-and-concise, filtered answers.
given that there are so few, anonymity may not be anonymity (my writing style’s probably recognizable to some; any individual incident I’ve probably already told all my friends about so it’ll be recognized at least by those; etc.); how would you work around that?
I’m expecting few enough responses that I’m willing to work with people on a case-by-case basis. For example, for you I could edit your writing towards my own style, or even (so long as it’s not pages) read it, wait an hour, and re-write it in my own voice, if needed (going back to make sure all relevant details are added in)
Discussing individual incidents is a bit trickier. In general, I would like to keep the narratives individual-specific. (i.e. “Lady Q writes: ” , rather than “Thoughts on Question X: ”) . Otherwise, the concern would be unable to differentiate between 10 women writing 1 good thing and 2 bad things each, OR 9⁄10 women wrote 1 good thing, and 1 woman writes 20 bad things.
That said, I do see the use of an “Anonymous Incidents” section, where people can put identifying incidents they would like to discuss, without associating it with the rest of their narrative. Do you think that would solve this issue?
That said, I do see the use of an “Anonymous Incidents” section, where people can put identifying incidents they would like to discuss, without associating it with the rest of their narrative. Do you think that would solve this issue?
I don’t have a clear picture of what this would look like.
I think I can illustrate with an example. Let me know if this helps!
Jane submits her narrative to the post. One paragraph in her narrative describes an incident that many people would recognize as her. Jane wants to mention this incident, but does not want to associate it with the rest of her narrative, because then people who could recognize that single incident, will know that the rest of the narrative is also hers. She pulls out the identifiable incident to be placed in a “Anonymous Comments” section that is not linked to the rest of her narrative. It is still somewhat anonymous, in that her name isn’t on it, and only the people who already know the story realize it is hers. But they can not trace knowledge of that particular story back to the rest of her narrative.
The post layout would be something like:
Jane’s (pseudonym) narrative: Whee! I’m a narrative.
Emily’s narrative: Yay! I’m Emily’s narrative. Pretend there are more narratives. We like pretending!
Anonymous comments:
<insert comment that Stacey doesn’t want associated with>
etc
By “narrative”, I am referring to the bulk of whatever Jane wrote. Probably items such as answering the questions upvoted in the forum. It would be everything Jane submitted to me, modulo the paragraph or two that she wanted placed in the “Comments” section instead, because they are incidents known to be hers.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have used the phrase “Anonymous Comments”. The narratives are also anonymous. The Comments section is what allows them to be so, by having somewhere else to place Obviously-Jane material. In fact, the Comments section is probably even LESS anonymous than the narratives, because they are composed of identifiable material that you don’t want associated with your super-anonymous narrative....
Um.....feel free to suggest better words than “Narrative” or “Comments section”… I don’t think I’m explaining well. :P
I’m unclear on what exactly I would tell you, but assuming there exists a useful answer to that question other than “y’know, stuff”, I’m game. Also, given that there are so few, anonymity may not be anonymity (my writing style’s probably recognizable to some; any individual incident I’ve probably already told all my friends about so it’ll be recognized at least by those; etc.); how would you work around that?
This comment actually gave me An Idea, so thank you!
Idea- In the Call for Responses post, there could be a Ask the Women thread, where people can submit questions. If you want a question answered, upvote it.
When the women write their responses, they can use the questions as prompts. A question that gets many upvotes will probably be written on by more women, thus getting more data. But if you want to respond to a more lower voted question, you can (or just say whatever you want to say)
I would say that the submitted questions will be assumed to be answered using Crocker’s Rules, no exceptions. What we want is a more stream-of-consciousness, gut-level reaction . Not self-censored, want-to-be-polite-and-concise, filtered answers.
Some topics for the call for responses I would propose:
Occasions when a man was creepy towards you at a social event.
Occasions when a woman was creepy towards you at a social event.
Occasions you met a new male friend at a social event, and how it wasn’t creepy, and what was fun/interesting/good about it.
Occasions you met a new female friend at a social event, and how it wasn’t creepy, and what was fun/interesting/good about it.
(I mean new friend in the sense that you didn’t know them, not that they were already a new friend before the event)
“This has never happened to me” would also be a useful response.
All of the above questions could be answered for either lesswrong-related events, or social events in general.
Occasions (or general patterns) when someone tried too hard to not be creepy toward you and displeased you as a result.
(Some of the policies that get tossed around are pretty extreme, so I’d be interested in measuring the overcompensation risk.)
I’m expecting few enough responses that I’m willing to work with people on a case-by-case basis. For example, for you I could edit your writing towards my own style, or even (so long as it’s not pages) read it, wait an hour, and re-write it in my own voice, if needed (going back to make sure all relevant details are added in)
Discussing individual incidents is a bit trickier. In general, I would like to keep the narratives individual-specific. (i.e. “Lady Q writes: ” , rather than “Thoughts on Question X: ”) . Otherwise, the concern would be unable to differentiate between 10 women writing 1 good thing and 2 bad things each, OR 9⁄10 women wrote 1 good thing, and 1 woman writes 20 bad things.
That said, I do see the use of an “Anonymous Incidents” section, where people can put identifying incidents they would like to discuss, without associating it with the rest of their narrative. Do you think that would solve this issue?
I don’t have a clear picture of what this would look like.
I think I can illustrate with an example. Let me know if this helps!
Jane submits her narrative to the post. One paragraph in her narrative describes an incident that many people would recognize as her. Jane wants to mention this incident, but does not want to associate it with the rest of her narrative, because then people who could recognize that single incident, will know that the rest of the narrative is also hers. She pulls out the identifiable incident to be placed in a “Anonymous Comments” section that is not linked to the rest of her narrative. It is still somewhat anonymous, in that her name isn’t on it, and only the people who already know the story realize it is hers. But they can not trace knowledge of that particular story back to the rest of her narrative.
The post layout would be something like:
Okay. But what is the content of “whee, I’m a narrative”?
All of the other stuff you have to say that wouldn’t be easily identified as something said by you.
By “narrative”, I am referring to the bulk of whatever Jane wrote. Probably items such as answering the questions upvoted in the forum. It would be everything Jane submitted to me, modulo the paragraph or two that she wanted placed in the “Comments” section instead, because they are incidents known to be hers.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have used the phrase “Anonymous Comments”. The narratives are also anonymous. The Comments section is what allows them to be so, by having somewhere else to place Obviously-Jane material. In fact, the Comments section is probably even LESS anonymous than the narratives, because they are composed of identifiable material that you don’t want associated with your super-anonymous narrative....
Um.....feel free to suggest better words than “Narrative” or “Comments section”… I don’t think I’m explaining well. :P