When I first found OB, Eliezer was just finishing the sequences and transitioning to LW. I would start reading an article, and follow all the links back to articles I hadn’t read yet. I was happy to spend days reading a later article with lots of prereqs. For me, have a depth of existing material that has been built on is a feature.
Defining rationalists as LW users, I think more came from these...
People who followed the sequences while Eliezer was still posting them
People who follow the Methods of Rationality fanfic
...than from just happening upon the site. I think people are more drawn in by an ongoing serial than an archive of pre-existing material.
It’s easy to get someone to follow a cool blog or fanfic. It’s hard to get someone to “read the sequences”.
Maybe Eliezer should repost his sequences over the next few years, in a foreign part of the blogosphere, under a pen-name? :)
When I first found OB, Eliezer was just finishing the sequences and transitioning to LW. I would start reading an article, and follow all the links back to articles I hadn’t read yet. I was happy to spend days reading a later article with lots of prereqs. For me, have a depth of existing material that has been built on is a feature.
Yep, just like TV Tropes or Wikipedia; all it takes is an interesting initial hook, and then the tab-queueing begins.