I was specifically objecting to the details of Raemon’s framing. I agree that in the context of the other things I said I should have been much more careful about the term “ghetto.” I strongly agree that moderators should attend to things like this. Your explanation basically makes sense to me.
I’m very unhappy that this ended up in a place where “is Duncan a proto-Nazi?” is a plausible framing of the question. I’m going to put quite a bit of thought to whether there was a way to object to this clearly and vividly, in a way that didn’t obscure the underlying threat model, without accidentally making it about Duncan personally.
One important thing I notice, that I hadn’t said, and I think would have been really helpful to figure-out-and-then-say-much-earlier:
If you find yourself wanting to communicate a concept that feels likely to get misinterpreted or escalate tensions in the conversation, I’d be very enthusiastic, both as a mod and as a person who knows Ben and thinks he’s trying to do and say important, nuanced things, to try to help do that. (esp if we hash out some thoughts privately before you post publicly)
This is easier the earlier it is in the conversation. I think it’d have been better if we reached out in that frame about your initial comment here, and it’d have been better still if you’d noticed as you were writing the comment that it was the sort of thing likely to get misinterpreted, and (if we had an easy way to do so), reach out to us about how to approach the conversation.
i.e. I think this sort of conversation requires a lot more interpretive labor than normal, but I’m happy to help that. (With limited bandwidth I can’t do this all the time, but it seems like a good approach insofar as we can, and worth prioritizing)
Yeah, I think there was something off about my framing, especially for a comment I was tagging as “high confidence.” I basically endorse Vaniver’s take here, and I think a more accurate and fair thing I would have said was:
1) I have strong sense, that I am quite confident is pointing at a real, important thing, that the ghetto comment was the sort of thing that reliably leads to a deteriorating discussion (and that this should be relatively common knowledge)
2) I had a moderate confidence that the shape-of-the-reason was close to the reason I gave (but, it did depend on context with other things), and I should have been some combination of “express less explicit confidence that I’m getting the details right” and “maybe orient more curiously about what some details/nuances were.”
I was specifically objecting to the details of Raemon’s framing. I agree that in the context of the other things I said I should have been much more careful about the term “ghetto.” I strongly agree that moderators should attend to things like this. Your explanation basically makes sense to me.
I’m very unhappy that this ended up in a place where “is Duncan a proto-Nazi?” is a plausible framing of the question. I’m going to put quite a bit of thought to whether there was a way to object to this clearly and vividly, in a way that didn’t obscure the underlying threat model, without accidentally making it about Duncan personally.
[note: Somewhat off the cuff]
One important thing I notice, that I hadn’t said, and I think would have been really helpful to figure-out-and-then-say-much-earlier:
If you find yourself wanting to communicate a concept that feels likely to get misinterpreted or escalate tensions in the conversation, I’d be very enthusiastic, both as a mod and as a person who knows Ben and thinks he’s trying to do and say important, nuanced things, to try to help do that. (esp if we hash out some thoughts privately before you post publicly)
This is easier the earlier it is in the conversation. I think it’d have been better if we reached out in that frame about your initial comment here, and it’d have been better still if you’d noticed as you were writing the comment that it was the sort of thing likely to get misinterpreted, and (if we had an easy way to do so), reach out to us about how to approach the conversation.
i.e. I think this sort of conversation requires a lot more interpretive labor than normal, but I’m happy to help that. (With limited bandwidth I can’t do this all the time, but it seems like a good approach insofar as we can, and worth prioritizing)
Thanks, good to have this offer :)
Yeah, I think there was something off about my framing, especially for a comment I was tagging as “high confidence.” I basically endorse Vaniver’s take here, and I think a more accurate and fair thing I would have said was:
1) I have strong sense, that I am quite confident is pointing at a real, important thing, that the ghetto comment was the sort of thing that reliably leads to a deteriorating discussion (and that this should be relatively common knowledge)
2) I had a moderate confidence that the shape-of-the-reason was close to the reason I gave (but, it did depend on context with other things), and I should have been some combination of “express less explicit confidence that I’m getting the details right” and “maybe orient more curiously about what some details/nuances were.”