The main value to me is being updated on all the research that is going on in this field. If the newsletter went away and nothing else changes, I don’t know how I would find all the new relevant papers and posts that come out.
I think I’ve commented on your newsletters a few times, but haven’t comment more because it seems like the number of people who would read and be interested in such a comment would be relatively small, compared to a comment on a more typical post. A lot of people who read your newsletters are doing so by email and won’t even see my comment, and someone who does read them through LW/AF might not be interested in the particular paper (or your opinion of it) that I want to discuss. Plus, the fact that you avoid giving strong negative opinions (which BTW seems sensible to me for a newsletter format) makes it less likely that I feel an urgent need to correct something.
One idea you can consider is to create individual link posts on AF for the most important papers/posts that you include in the newsletter (with your summaries and opinions) that haven’t already been posted to AF, which would create focal points for discussing them. I think if I had a thought on some paper that is mentioned in your newsletter, I’d be more inclined to write a comment for it under its own link post as opposed to under your newsletter post. I would also be more inclined to comment on your summaries and opinions if there was a chance to correct something before it went out to your email subscribers. This could also be a way for you to solicit summaries from random readers.
I think I’ve commented on your newsletters a few times, but haven’t comment more because it seems like the number of people who would read and be interested in such a comment would be relatively small, compared to a comment on a more typical post.
I am surprised you think this. Don’t the newsletters tend to be relatively highly upvoted? They’re one of the kinds of links that I always automatically click on when I see them on the LW front page.
Maybe I’m basing this too much on my own experience, but I would love to see more discussion on the newsletter posts.
Thanks! Link posts on AF are an interesting idea; my current expectation is that very few people apart from you would comment on them, but it seems worth trying.
I would also be more inclined to comment on your summaries and opinions if there was a chance to correct something before it went out to your email subscribers.
This makes sense, will think about how to make it happen.
One option that’s smaller than link posts might be to mention in the AF/LW version of the newsletter which entries are new to AIAF/LW as far as you know; or make comment threads in the newsletter for those entries. I don’t know how useful these would be either, but it’d be one way to create common knowledge ‘this is currently the one and only place to discuss these things on LW/AIAF’.
The main value to me is being updated on all the research that is going on in this field. If the newsletter went away and nothing else changes, I don’t know how I would find all the new relevant papers and posts that come out.
I think I’ve commented on your newsletters a few times, but haven’t comment more because it seems like the number of people who would read and be interested in such a comment would be relatively small, compared to a comment on a more typical post. A lot of people who read your newsletters are doing so by email and won’t even see my comment, and someone who does read them through LW/AF might not be interested in the particular paper (or your opinion of it) that I want to discuss. Plus, the fact that you avoid giving strong negative opinions (which BTW seems sensible to me for a newsletter format) makes it less likely that I feel an urgent need to correct something.
One idea you can consider is to create individual link posts on AF for the most important papers/posts that you include in the newsletter (with your summaries and opinions) that haven’t already been posted to AF, which would create focal points for discussing them. I think if I had a thought on some paper that is mentioned in your newsletter, I’d be more inclined to write a comment for it under its own link post as opposed to under your newsletter post. I would also be more inclined to comment on your summaries and opinions if there was a chance to correct something before it went out to your email subscribers. This could also be a way for you to solicit summaries from random readers.
I am surprised you think this. Don’t the newsletters tend to be relatively highly upvoted? They’re one of the kinds of links that I always automatically click on when I see them on the LW front page.
Maybe I’m basing this too much on my own experience, but I would love to see more discussion on the newsletter posts.
Thanks! Link posts on AF are an interesting idea; my current expectation is that very few people apart from you would comment on them, but it seems worth trying.
This makes sense, will think about how to make it happen.
One option that’s smaller than link posts might be to mention in the AF/LW version of the newsletter which entries are new to AIAF/LW as far as you know; or make comment threads in the newsletter for those entries. I don’t know how useful these would be either, but it’d be one way to create common knowledge ‘this is currently the one and only place to discuss these things on LW/AIAF’.