Slight clarification – I think I worded the previous comment confusingly. I meant to say, if the typical LessWrong user wrote a single comment in reply to a post saying “this seems wrong”, I would expect that to basically be fine.
I only recommend the “create a whole new post” thing when an author specifically asks you to stop commenting.
(In some cases I think creating a whole new post would actually be just fine, based on how I’ve seen, say, Eliezer, Robin Hanson, Zvi, Ben Hoffman and Sarah Constantin respond to each other in longform on occasion. In other cases creating a whole new post might go over less well, and/or might be a bit of an experiment rather than a tried-and-true-solution, but I think it’s the correct experiment to try)
Also want to be a clear—if authors are banning or asking lots of users to avoid criticism, I do think the author should take something of a social hit as “a person who can’t accept any criticism”. But I nonetheless think it’s still a better metanorm for established authors to have control over their post’s discussion area.
[The LessWrong team is currently trying to develop a much clearer understanding of what good moderation policies are, which might result in some of my opinions changing over the next few weeks, this is just a quick summary of what I currently believe]
Also want to be a clear—if authors are banning or asking lots of users to avoid criticism, I do think the author should take something of a social hit as “a person who can’t accept any criticism”. But I nonetheless think it’s still a better metanorm for established authors to have control over their post’s discussion area.
Quite. A suggestion, then, if I may: display “how many people has this person banned from their posts” (with, upon a click or mouseover or some such, the full list of users available, who have been thus banned) prominently, when viewing a person’s post (somewhere near the post’s author line, perhaps). This way, if I open a post by one Carol, say, I can see at once that she’s banned 12 people from her posts; I take note of this (as that is unusually many); I then click/mouseover/etc., and see either that all the banned accounts are known trolls and curmudgeons (and conclude that Carol is a sensible person with a low tolerance for low-grade nonsense), or that all the banned accounts are people I judge to be reasonable and polite (and conclude that Carol is a prima donna with a low tolerance for having her ideas challenged).
Something in that space seems basically reasonable. Note that I haven’t prioritized cleaning up (and then improving visibility for) the moderation log in part because the list of users who have ever banned users is actually just extremely short, and meanwhile there’s a lot of other site features that seem higher priority.
I have been revisiting it recently and think it’d be a good thing to include in the nearish future (esp. if I am prioritizing other features that’d make archipelago-norms more likely to actually get used), but for the immediate future I actually think just saying to the few people who’ve expressed concerns ‘yo, when you look at the moderation log almost nobody has used it’ is the right call given limited dev time.
I meant to say, if the typical LessWrong user wrote a single comment in reply to a post saying “this seems wrong”, I would expect that to basically be fine.
Ah, I see. Well, yes. But then, that’s also what I was saying: this sort of thing is generally fine as a comment, but as a post…
I only recommend the “create a whole new post” thing when an author specifically asks you to stop commenting.
I entirely understand your intention here, but consider: this would be even worse, “optics”-wise! “So,” thinks the reader, “this guy was so annoying, with his contrarian objections, that the victim of his nitpicking actually asked him to stop commenting; but he can’t let it go, so he wrote a whole post about it?!” And of course this is an uncharitable perspective, and one which isn’t consistent with “good truth-seeking norms”, etc. But… do you doubt that this is the sort of impression that will, if involuntarily, be formed in the minds of the commentariat?
3. Author says “this is annoying enough that I’d prefer you not to comment on my posts anymore.” [Hopefully, although not necessarily, the author does this knowing that they are basically opting into you now being encouraged by LessWrong moderators to post your criticism elsewhere if you think it’s important. This might not currently be communicated that well but I think it should be]
4. Then you go and write a post titled ‘My thoughts on X’ or ‘Alternative Conversation about X’ or whatever, that says ‘the author seems wrong / bad.’
By that point, sure it might be annoying, but it’s presumably an improvement from the author’s take. (I know that if I wanted to write a post about some high level Weird Introspection Stuff that took a bunch of Weird Introspection Paradigm stuff for granted, I’d personally probably be annoyed if you made the discussion about whether the Weird Introspection Paradigm was even any good, and much less annoyed if you wrote another post saying so.
I might be typical minding, but two important bits from my perspective are ‘getting to have the conversation that I actually wanted to have’, and ‘not being forced to provide my own platform for someone else who I don’t think is arguing in good faith’
Slight clarification – I think I worded the previous comment confusingly. I meant to say, if the typical LessWrong user wrote a single comment in reply to a post saying “this seems wrong”, I would expect that to basically be fine.
I only recommend the “create a whole new post” thing when an author specifically asks you to stop commenting.
(In some cases I think creating a whole new post would actually be just fine, based on how I’ve seen, say, Eliezer, Robin Hanson, Zvi, Ben Hoffman and Sarah Constantin respond to each other in longform on occasion. In other cases creating a whole new post might go over less well, and/or might be a bit of an experiment rather than a tried-and-true-solution, but I think it’s the correct experiment to try)
Also want to be a clear—if authors are banning or asking lots of users to avoid criticism, I do think the author should take something of a social hit as “a person who can’t accept any criticism”. But I nonetheless think it’s still a better metanorm for established authors to have control over their post’s discussion area.
[The LessWrong team is currently trying to develop a much clearer understanding of what good moderation policies are, which might result in some of my opinions changing over the next few weeks, this is just a quick summary of what I currently believe]
Quite. A suggestion, then, if I may: display “how many people has this person banned from their posts” (with, upon a click or mouseover or some such, the full list of users available, who have been thus banned) prominently, when viewing a person’s post (somewhere near the post’s author line, perhaps). This way, if I open a post by one Carol, say, I can see at once that she’s banned 12 people from her posts; I take note of this (as that is unusually many); I then click/mouseover/etc., and see either that all the banned accounts are known trolls and curmudgeons (and conclude that Carol is a sensible person with a low tolerance for low-grade nonsense), or that all the banned accounts are people I judge to be reasonable and polite (and conclude that Carol is a prima donna with a low tolerance for having her ideas challenged).
Something in that space seems basically reasonable. Note that I haven’t prioritized cleaning up (and then improving visibility for) the moderation log in part because the list of users who have ever banned users is actually just extremely short, and meanwhile there’s a lot of other site features that seem higher priority.
I have been revisiting it recently and think it’d be a good thing to include in the nearish future (esp. if I am prioritizing other features that’d make archipelago-norms more likely to actually get used), but for the immediate future I actually think just saying to the few people who’ve expressed concerns ‘yo, when you look at the moderation log almost nobody has used it’ is the right call given limited dev time.
Ah, I see. Well, yes. But then, that’s also what I was saying: this sort of thing is generally fine as a comment, but as a post…
I entirely understand your intention here, but consider: this would be even worse, “optics”-wise! “So,” thinks the reader, “this guy was so annoying, with his contrarian objections, that the victim of his nitpicking actually asked him to stop commenting; but he can’t let it go, so he wrote a whole post about it?!” And of course this is an uncharitable perspective, and one which isn’t consistent with “good truth-seeking norms”, etc. But… do you doubt that this is the sort of impression that will, if involuntarily, be formed in the minds of the commentariat?
I’m fairly uncertain here. But I don’t currently share the intuition.
Note that the order of events I’m suggesting is:
1. Author posts.
2. Commenter says “this seems wrong / bad”. Disagreement ensues
3. Author says “this is annoying enough that I’d prefer you not to comment on my posts anymore.” [Hopefully, although not necessarily, the author does this knowing that they are basically opting into you now being encouraged by LessWrong moderators to post your criticism elsewhere if you think it’s important. This might not currently be communicated that well but I think it should be]
4. Then you go and write a post titled ‘My thoughts on X’ or ‘Alternative Conversation about X’ or whatever, that says ‘the author seems wrong / bad.’
By that point, sure it might be annoying, but it’s presumably an improvement from the author’s take. (I know that if I wanted to write a post about some high level Weird Introspection Stuff that took a bunch of Weird Introspection Paradigm stuff for granted, I’d personally probably be annoyed if you made the discussion about whether the Weird Introspection Paradigm was even any good, and much less annoyed if you wrote another post saying so.
I might be typical minding, but two important bits from my perspective are ‘getting to have the conversation that I actually wanted to have’, and ‘not being forced to provide my own platform for someone else who I don’t think is arguing in good faith’