The well-kept garden thing obviously hasn’t succeeded as planned, so should we be aspiring for some kind of 4chan for rationalists?
I disagree; LW has succeeded far better than, say, SL4, and better than OB. Despite having just a tiny fraction of the population and activity and a heavily restricted set of topics, SL4 was a much less pleasant forum to use.
I think it’s one of the factors, along with making posting easier, more explicitly trying to foster a community (how many SL4 or OB meetups were there ever?), the content contribution of the Sequences, and using a forum software with pervasive moderation.
I disagree; LW has succeeded far better than, say, SL4, and better than OB. Despite having just a tiny fraction of the population and activity and a heavily restricted set of topics, SL4 was a much less pleasant forum to use.
Do you think LW has succeeded because EY attempted to make it a well-kept garden?
I think it’s one of the factors, along with making posting easier, more explicitly trying to foster a community (how many SL4 or OB meetups were there ever?), the content contribution of the Sequences, and using a forum software with pervasive moderation.