As someone who doesn’t live in the Bay Area, has no intention of moving there in the near future, and who resents the idea that anyone who wants to be part of what ought to be a worldwide rationality needs to eventually move to the Bay Area to do so. I’m part of the rationality and effective altruism communities, and I too have taken to task community members in the Bay Area for acting as though they can solve community coordination problems with new projects when acknowledgement of the underwhelming success or failure of prior projects never seems to take place. I do that on Facebook, though, where not only my civilian identity and a track record of my behaviour is. There are closed groups or chats where things are less open, so it’s not as damaging, and even if I make a post on my own Facebook feed for over one thousand people to see, if I say something wrong, at least it’s out in the open so I may face the full consequences of my mistakes.
I know lots of people mentioned in ’18239018038528017428′ comment. I either didn’t know those things about them, or I wouldn’t characterize what I did know in such terms. Based on their claims, ’18239018038528017428′ seems to have more intimate knowledge than I do, and I’d guess is also in or around the Bay Area rationality community as well. Yet they’re on this forum anonymously, framing themselves as some underdog taking down high-status community members, when the criteria for such hasn’t been established other than “works at MIRI/CFAR”, and what they’re doing is just insulting and accusing regular people like the rest of us on the internet. They’re not facing the consequences of their actions.
The information provided isn’t primarily intended to resolve disputes, which I would think ought to be the best application of truth-seeking behaviour in this regard, which is expected as a if not the only primary purpose of discourse here. Primary purposes of ’18239018038528017428′s comment were to express frustration, slander certain individuals, and undermine and discredit Duncan’s project without evidence to back up their claims. These are at cross-purposes with truth-seeking behaviour.
There’s nothing I do which is more policed in terms of tone on the basis of sensitivity that ’18239018038528017428′ isn’t doing. While we’re talking about norms of sensitivity, let’s talk about norms for resolving interpersonal disputes. All the differences between how I and lots of others in the community do it, even if the tone we use isn’t always splendid or sensitive, and how ’18239018038528017428′ do it, are what separates people who have a non-zero respect for norms, and those who don’t. This coming from me, a guy who lots of people think probably already flaunts social norms too much.
I am anti-sympathetic to ’18239018038528017428′ and whether they’re censored. Another reason not to resolve interpersonal disputes like this in public on a website like LessWrong is most people in online communities don’t like seeing this sort of drama dominate discourse, and in particular there are lots of us who don’t care for ever more drama from one zip code being all anyone pays attention to. That defies the purpose of this site, and saps the will of people not in the Bay Area to continue to engage in the rationality community. That’s not what anyone needs. Since we’ve established ’18239018038528017428′ seems close enough to probably be part of the Berkeley rationality community already, there are plenty of channels like private group chats, mailing lists, or other apps where everyone involved can be connected, but user ‘18239018038528017428’ wouldn’t need to out themselves in front of everyone to do it. They could’ve had had a friend do it.
There are plenty of ways they could’ve accomplished everything they would’ve wanted without being censored, and without doing it on LessWrong. When they have access to plenty of online spaces which serve the same purpose, there’s no reason LW must allow that speech to the chagrin of all other users. While I get that you think a Chesterton’s fence for discourse is being torn down here, I don’t believe that’s what’s going on here, and I think the preferences of everyone else on LessWrong who isn’t personally involved deserves a say on what they are and aren’t okay with being censored on this site.
You don’t seem to be addressing what I said very much if at all, but rather to mostly be giving your reaction to 18239018038528017428′s comments. This is demonstrated by the fact that you take for granted various assumptions that it was the purpose of my comment to call into question.
In particular, the speech is not being allowed “to the chagrin of all other users”. I am notably non-chagrinned by the speech being allowed, and I advocate that people be less chagrinned by such speech being allowed.
Needless to say, to be allowed is not to be approved.
As someone who doesn’t live in the Bay Area, has no intention of moving there in the near future, and who resents the idea that anyone who wants to be part of what ought to be a worldwide rationality needs to eventually move to the Bay Area to do so. I’m part of the rationality and effective altruism communities, and I too have taken to task community members in the Bay Area for acting as though they can solve community coordination problems with new projects when acknowledgement of the underwhelming success or failure of prior projects never seems to take place. I do that on Facebook, though, where not only my civilian identity and a track record of my behaviour is. There are closed groups or chats where things are less open, so it’s not as damaging, and even if I make a post on my own Facebook feed for over one thousand people to see, if I say something wrong, at least it’s out in the open so I may face the full consequences of my mistakes.
I know lots of people mentioned in ’18239018038528017428′ comment. I either didn’t know those things about them, or I wouldn’t characterize what I did know in such terms. Based on their claims, ’18239018038528017428′ seems to have more intimate knowledge than I do, and I’d guess is also in or around the Bay Area rationality community as well. Yet they’re on this forum anonymously, framing themselves as some underdog taking down high-status community members, when the criteria for such hasn’t been established other than “works at MIRI/CFAR”, and what they’re doing is just insulting and accusing regular people like the rest of us on the internet. They’re not facing the consequences of their actions.
The information provided isn’t primarily intended to resolve disputes, which I would think ought to be the best application of truth-seeking behaviour in this regard, which is expected as a if not the only primary purpose of discourse here. Primary purposes of ’18239018038528017428′s comment were to express frustration, slander certain individuals, and undermine and discredit Duncan’s project without evidence to back up their claims. These are at cross-purposes with truth-seeking behaviour.
There’s nothing I do which is more policed in terms of tone on the basis of sensitivity that ’18239018038528017428′ isn’t doing. While we’re talking about norms of sensitivity, let’s talk about norms for resolving interpersonal disputes. All the differences between how I and lots of others in the community do it, even if the tone we use isn’t always splendid or sensitive, and how ’18239018038528017428′ do it, are what separates people who have a non-zero respect for norms, and those who don’t. This coming from me, a guy who lots of people think probably already flaunts social norms too much.
I am anti-sympathetic to ’18239018038528017428′ and whether they’re censored. Another reason not to resolve interpersonal disputes like this in public on a website like LessWrong is most people in online communities don’t like seeing this sort of drama dominate discourse, and in particular there are lots of us who don’t care for ever more drama from one zip code being all anyone pays attention to. That defies the purpose of this site, and saps the will of people not in the Bay Area to continue to engage in the rationality community. That’s not what anyone needs. Since we’ve established ’18239018038528017428′ seems close enough to probably be part of the Berkeley rationality community already, there are plenty of channels like private group chats, mailing lists, or other apps where everyone involved can be connected, but user ‘18239018038528017428’ wouldn’t need to out themselves in front of everyone to do it. They could’ve had had a friend do it.
There are plenty of ways they could’ve accomplished everything they would’ve wanted without being censored, and without doing it on LessWrong. When they have access to plenty of online spaces which serve the same purpose, there’s no reason LW must allow that speech to the chagrin of all other users. While I get that you think a Chesterton’s fence for discourse is being torn down here, I don’t believe that’s what’s going on here, and I think the preferences of everyone else on LessWrong who isn’t personally involved deserves a say on what they are and aren’t okay with being censored on this site.
You don’t seem to be addressing what I said very much if at all, but rather to mostly be giving your reaction to 18239018038528017428′s comments. This is demonstrated by the fact that you take for granted various assumptions that it was the purpose of my comment to call into question.
In particular, the speech is not being allowed “to the chagrin of all other users”. I am notably non-chagrinned by the speech being allowed, and I advocate that people be less chagrinned by such speech being allowed.
Needless to say, to be allowed is not to be approved.