Agreed. Especially when you don’t know the context of the discussion and it gives the feeling of LW being about a small clique of people and their issues, rather than actually talking about interesting things.
In general the site runs really well, all the stuff recently about not feeding trolls or filtering out newer people seems unnecessary and counterproductive.
Agreed. Especially when you don’t know the context of the discussion and it gives the feeling of LW being about a small clique of people and their issues, rather than actually talking about interesting things.
I would think that being anchored by a strong (possibly uncharacteristic) recent event would make one’s judgment worse, which is (part of!) why I avoided giving that context, and said as much.
I consider meta discussion in general tiresome, and meta discussion that is being used as a code for personal disputes particularly tiresome.
Its not a matter of judgement as a matter of what I am interesting in discussing and what I am in favour of seeing on LessWrong. For example, I could engage in a discussion of literary theory without bias, but don’t particularly want to do so, and don’t think LessWrong would be the place to do so. I would be especially averse to such a discussion if it was being used as some sort of proxy for a dispute between two people. There are other places to discuss literary theory, and other better ways to resolve personal disputes.
If I see non-standard, extreme methods of community forum administration, and I wish to stop it or make it consistent, I have two options:
1) I can discuss the merit of the policy in the abstract, divorced from any particular instance.
2) I can discuss it with specific reference to the most recent events, thus rebooting that discussion and escalating it to a flamewar (or a worse flamewar if it’s already one)
No matter which way I go, you can come up with a reason why I did the stupidest/most inflammatory method. So, your comment doesn’t tell me a lot about what I should do instead—unless your position really is, “That’s a great policy, don’t bother even talking about it.”
Or perhaps that was the game—if I argue the abstract, you accuse me of being passive-aggressive about the particular; and if I argue the particular, you accuse me of rekindling and widening the existing drama. Either way, potentially abusive moderation gets a free pass.
The hard part: tell me what I should have done, that would met with your non-disapproval.
I sympathise with the problem as you state it, but don’t know enough about the particular circumstances to know if that is a fair summary or what you would be best doing about it.
Personally I would have preferred if you had mentioned the context in the original post in something like the format of: This thing happened [link and explanation], are we ok with this form of moderation being the norm on here?
Describing the issue in a very abstracted way gives an impression of subterfuge, and makes people feel excluded from the discussion.
I don’t disagree with any of that; I just don’t know if I’d get as much criticism had I done it that way, or if I’d just be told, “HOW DARE YOU SPREAD THAT CONFLICT TO THE REST OF THE SITE YOU F***ING TERRORIST!”
Agreed. Especially when you don’t know the context of the discussion and it gives the feeling of LW being about a small clique of people and their issues, rather than actually talking about interesting things.
In general the site runs really well, all the stuff recently about not feeding trolls or filtering out newer people seems unnecessary and counterproductive.
I would think that being anchored by a strong (possibly uncharacteristic) recent event would make one’s judgment worse, which is (part of!) why I avoided giving that context, and said as much.
I consider meta discussion in general tiresome, and meta discussion that is being used as a code for personal disputes particularly tiresome.
Its not a matter of judgement as a matter of what I am interesting in discussing and what I am in favour of seeing on LessWrong. For example, I could engage in a discussion of literary theory without bias, but don’t particularly want to do so, and don’t think LessWrong would be the place to do so. I would be especially averse to such a discussion if it was being used as some sort of proxy for a dispute between two people. There are other places to discuss literary theory, and other better ways to resolve personal disputes.
If I see non-standard, extreme methods of community forum administration, and I wish to stop it or make it consistent, I have two options:
1) I can discuss the merit of the policy in the abstract, divorced from any particular instance.
2) I can discuss it with specific reference to the most recent events, thus rebooting that discussion and escalating it to a flamewar (or a worse flamewar if it’s already one)
No matter which way I go, you can come up with a reason why I did the stupidest/most inflammatory method. So, your comment doesn’t tell me a lot about what I should do instead—unless your position really is, “That’s a great policy, don’t bother even talking about it.”
Or perhaps that was the game—if I argue the abstract, you accuse me of being passive-aggressive about the particular; and if I argue the particular, you accuse me of rekindling and widening the existing drama. Either way, potentially abusive moderation gets a free pass.
The hard part: tell me what I should have done, that would met with your non-disapproval.
I sympathise with the problem as you state it, but don’t know enough about the particular circumstances to know if that is a fair summary or what you would be best doing about it.
Personally I would have preferred if you had mentioned the context in the original post in something like the format of: This thing happened [link and explanation], are we ok with this form of moderation being the norm on here?
Describing the issue in a very abstracted way gives an impression of subterfuge, and makes people feel excluded from the discussion.
I don’t disagree with any of that; I just don’t know if I’d get as much criticism had I done it that way, or if I’d just be told, “HOW DARE YOU SPREAD THAT CONFLICT TO THE REST OF THE SITE YOU F***ING TERRORIST!”
(My estimate is that you were wise to refrain from providing explicit references.)