This would increase the level of noise. A good change along these lines is for people who have something to say to speak up more frequently (as opposed to everyone speaking up more frequently, regardless of whether they have something nontrivial to say). But even that is potentially hazardous, since a norm suggesting an obligation to voice your thoughts makes reading more costly, possibly pushes readers away.
I think you’re pointing to all the probable issues with this sort of idea. But still, I think that this particular proposal deals with them:
About the level of noise: I agree that if every user posted a comment on everything, that might be too much. But we’re very far from that state. So this needs to work incredibly well to end up in this failure mode, at which point we will probably see it coming
Another point about noise: I don’t think that having feedback, even if only something like “I like this post”/”I disliked this post”/”I had trouble to care”, is noise.For me, this is incredibly important, and every person I talked with on this subject agreed. But I guess that’s a community decision to consider, and it’s more important to see what most people around here think than just me.
About feeling forced to voice your thoughts: this is why this challenge is completely customizable. You can say that you’ll try to write one comment a day, or even one every two days, or every week. So I don’t think it will actually push readers away, because they are in total control of their level of commitment. See for example what D0TheMath writes in his comment.
I don’t think that having feedback, even if only something like “I like this post”/”I disliked this post”/”I had trouble to care”, is noise. For me, this is incredibly important, and every person I talked with on this subject agreed.
Whether people agree is beside the point. Is this actually true? To figure it out, it’s necessary to be more clear on what the statement means. In what way, specifically, is this kind of feedback important? If someone says “I like your post”, it’s very hard to learn anything in particular from that. If it’s customary to say things like that, some people would just say them out of misplaced general niceness, and there will be even less meaning in the utterance. (Also, there are upvotes/downvotes to indicate precisely that kind of feedback.) Some people like hearing that someone likes their posts, but that’s different from feedback being instructive. Noise can be pleasant without being enlightening. Finally, it can be motivating to hear that your work is appreciated.
It seems that it’s false that this kind of feedback is important for learning things, but true that it’s important for motivation of some authors. These are different claims that shouldn’t be mixed up. When you say “every person I talked with on this subject agreed”, do you (or they) know what exactly they agree with?
I don’t think it will actually push readers away, because they are in total control of their level of commitment.
Unfortunately, norms don’t like nuance. This post is very far from igniting a norm, but if hypothetically what it suggests bears fruit, it will be in the form of a norm to comment more, and that norm will end up punishing defectors regardless of whether that was an intended feature of the norm or not.
This would increase the level of noise. A good change along these lines is for people who have something to say to speak up more frequently (as opposed to everyone speaking up more frequently, regardless of whether they have something nontrivial to say). But even that is potentially hazardous, since a norm suggesting an obligation to voice your thoughts makes reading more costly, possibly pushes readers away.
I think you’re pointing to all the probable issues with this sort of idea. But still, I think that this particular proposal deals with them:
About the level of noise: I agree that if every user posted a comment on everything, that might be too much. But we’re very far from that state. So this needs to work incredibly well to end up in this failure mode, at which point we will probably see it coming
Another point about noise: I don’t think that having feedback, even if only something like “I like this post”/”I disliked this post”/”I had trouble to care”, is noise.For me, this is incredibly important, and every person I talked with on this subject agreed. But I guess that’s a community decision to consider, and it’s more important to see what most people around here think than just me.
About feeling forced to voice your thoughts: this is why this challenge is completely customizable. You can say that you’ll try to write one comment a day, or even one every two days, or every week. So I don’t think it will actually push readers away, because they are in total control of their level of commitment. See for example what D0TheMath writes in his comment.
Whether people agree is beside the point. Is this actually true? To figure it out, it’s necessary to be more clear on what the statement means. In what way, specifically, is this kind of feedback important? If someone says “I like your post”, it’s very hard to learn anything in particular from that. If it’s customary to say things like that, some people would just say them out of misplaced general niceness, and there will be even less meaning in the utterance. (Also, there are upvotes/downvotes to indicate precisely that kind of feedback.) Some people like hearing that someone likes their posts, but that’s different from feedback being instructive. Noise can be pleasant without being enlightening. Finally, it can be motivating to hear that your work is appreciated.
It seems that it’s false that this kind of feedback is important for learning things, but true that it’s important for motivation of some authors. These are different claims that shouldn’t be mixed up. When you say “every person I talked with on this subject agreed”, do you (or they) know what exactly they agree with?
Unfortunately, norms don’t like nuance. This post is very far from igniting a norm, but if hypothetically what it suggests bears fruit, it will be in the form of a norm to comment more, and that norm will end up punishing defectors regardless of whether that was an intended feature of the norm or not.