Afterwards, I felt bad about it somehow—like I had done something wrong or unappreciated—despite having a substantially positive karma balance on that post. I think the reason was that almost all the top-level comments were neutral or negative and there was not much encouraging discussion, and I think the post might have been moved to Discussion—it was certainly not promoted.
It’s actually interesting to go back and look at that because I now realize that that was a reasonably successful post and probably should have encouraged me further. Instead it did not. I wonder if something similar has happened to others.
Looks to me like you were a victim of a culture of hyperdeveloped cynicism and skepticism. It’s much easier to tear things down and complain than to create value, so we end up discouraging anyone trying to make anything useful.
I once posted to Main (http://lesswrong.com/lw/6uw/how_to_enjoy_being_wrong/).
Afterwards, I felt bad about it somehow—like I had done something wrong or unappreciated—despite having a substantially positive karma balance on that post. I think the reason was that almost all the top-level comments were neutral or negative and there was not much encouraging discussion, and I think the post might have been moved to Discussion—it was certainly not promoted.
It’s actually interesting to go back and look at that because I now realize that that was a reasonably successful post and probably should have encouraged me further. Instead it did not. I wonder if something similar has happened to others.
Looks to me like you were a victim of a culture of hyperdeveloped cynicism and skepticism. It’s much easier to tear things down and complain than to create value, so we end up discouraging anyone trying to make anything useful.