it looks like an easy way to get some karma would be to create a female username and post in this thread. If we say that women’s comments in a thread about how to attract more women are more valuable we’re making some unstated assumptions.
The profusion of upvotes did make me feel a bit odd, as though I’d wandered into a discussion with a tone of politics and random applause instead of collaborative thinking as I’m used to.
But discussion here has nevertheless been a lot better than discussion on such mind-killing topics usually is (a testament both to LW and to EY’s careful post). And I agree with mattnewport’s point about erring on the side of being welcoming, especially for those who said they are nervous and new.
it looks like an easy way to get some karma would be to create a female username and post in this thread. If we say that women’s comments in a thread about how to attract more women are more valuable we’re making some unstated assumptions.
What makes you say that? At the present moment, only one female comment in this thread is rated higher (20) than my highest-rated comment in this thread (17). My second-highest rated comment (11) is higher than most other female comments in the thread. There are plenty of other male comments with comparably high scores, in the 9-12 range.
It appears that people are simply voting up more in this thread in general, not merely to persons with female handles. My personal guess would be that this is because the air is getting cleared on some topics of general interest that nobody has felt comfortable expressing prior to this point, and the refreshment of hearing those things (and a few good proposed solutions) is encouraging upvotes.
(Of course, there could also be a priming effect of focusing on stereotypes around social support and being a welcoming community in general, which would also skew things more towards upvotes and away from downvotes...)
You may have a valid point but since a common theme seems to be that newer posters do not feel welcomed or that their input is appreciated I believe people are making an effort to be more generous with up-votes in this thread. I’ve generally been quite parsimonious with up-votes and comments here and in the welcome thread have made me feel that I should bias myself more in favour of up-votes over down-votes.
Since this is a thread about how and why females are underrepresented on LW their input is particularly relevant and so higher karma scores do not necessarily imply any further bias. In conjunction with a hypothesized general realization that more up-voting, particularly of new commenters, would be of benefit to the community I think it’s possible to explain the high comment karma without postulating further bias.
I’d be interested to know what you think the unstated assumptions are though.
it looks like an easy way to get some karma would be to create a female username and post in this thread. If we say that women’s comments in a thread about how to attract more women are more valuable we’re making some unstated assumptions.
The profusion of upvotes did make me feel a bit odd, as though I’d wandered into a discussion with a tone of politics and random applause instead of collaborative thinking as I’m used to.
But discussion here has nevertheless been a lot better than discussion on such mind-killing topics usually is (a testament both to LW and to EY’s careful post). And I agree with mattnewport’s point about erring on the side of being welcoming, especially for those who said they are nervous and new.
What makes you say that? At the present moment, only one female comment in this thread is rated higher (20) than my highest-rated comment in this thread (17). My second-highest rated comment (11) is higher than most other female comments in the thread. There are plenty of other male comments with comparably high scores, in the 9-12 range.
It appears that people are simply voting up more in this thread in general, not merely to persons with female handles. My personal guess would be that this is because the air is getting cleared on some topics of general interest that nobody has felt comfortable expressing prior to this point, and the refreshment of hearing those things (and a few good proposed solutions) is encouraging upvotes.
(Of course, there could also be a priming effect of focusing on stereotypes around social support and being a welcoming community in general, which would also skew things more towards upvotes and away from downvotes...)
You may have a valid point but since a common theme seems to be that newer posters do not feel welcomed or that their input is appreciated I believe people are making an effort to be more generous with up-votes in this thread. I’ve generally been quite parsimonious with up-votes and comments here and in the welcome thread have made me feel that I should bias myself more in favour of up-votes over down-votes.
Since this is a thread about how and why females are underrepresented on LW their input is particularly relevant and so higher karma scores do not necessarily imply any further bias. In conjunction with a hypothesized general realization that more up-voting, particularly of new commenters, would be of benefit to the community I think it’s possible to explain the high comment karma without postulating further bias.
I’d be interested to know what you think the unstated assumptions are though.
Can you name an example of a wrong assumption that we might be making if we’re saying this?