I think (albeit on the basis of limited evidence) that what’s helpful for good conversations is a low value on humour rather than a negative value on humour. The fora I’ve seen with the best discussion don’t generally regard humour as bad; they just regard it as generally not good enough to redeem an otherwise unhelpful comment. Exceptionally good humour, or humour produced incidentally while saying something that would have been valuable even without the humour, is just fine on (for instance) Less Wrong or Hacker News—but comments whose only point is a feeble witticism are liable to get downvoted into oblivion.
I find it can be really irritating to try to make any kind of point about anything with certain people. To some there is no point in talking other than to yuk it up. I guess you just have to know your audience.
I’m pretty indifferent to humour per se, but empirically it takes away from other things. Discussion sites where humour is valued have a lower proportion of interesting (to me) posts; television series with a lot of humour seem to make a corresponding sacrifice in character development.
The best conversations are in places that put a low value on humour. Unfortunately in wider society disliking humour is seen as a massive negative.
I think (albeit on the basis of limited evidence) that what’s helpful for good conversations is a low value on humour rather than a negative value on humour. The fora I’ve seen with the best discussion don’t generally regard humour as bad; they just regard it as generally not good enough to redeem an otherwise unhelpful comment. Exceptionally good humour, or humour produced incidentally while saying something that would have been valuable even without the humour, is just fine on (for instance) Less Wrong or Hacker News—but comments whose only point is a feeble witticism are liable to get downvoted into oblivion.
I find it can be really irritating to try to make any kind of point about anything with certain people. To some there is no point in talking other than to yuk it up. I guess you just have to know your audience.
Not in my experience.
I find best conversations in places which operate on the Ha-Ha-Only-Serious basis.
Why do you dislike humour?
I’m pretty indifferent to humour per se, but empirically it takes away from other things. Discussion sites where humour is valued have a lower proportion of interesting (to me) posts; television series with a lot of humour seem to make a corresponding sacrifice in character development.