Or: the generalized version of this is, “notice when you are doing something you wouldn’t endorse doing all the time, and flag it with a quick observation, and apology if it seems like it’d impose costs on others.” That seems like a generally good metahabit to me.
Taking that literally, there are a tremendous number of acts that might cost others or that might be only appropriate in context. Having to specially flag everything fitting that criteria seems onerous.
More generally, I think it’s important to think through what the next issues become after a norm like this is implemented. I anticipate you’ll have wildly asymmetric self-flagging based on social anxiety, the in-group popularity of the person or their ideas. Specifically, there will be some popular people who can freely rant and psychologize with no flagging, never getting called out, plenty of upvotes and no mod action when it happens online. But now there will be explicit grounds for sanction when less popular people fly against the ingroup and a built in reporting bias reinforcing locally favored views.
To be clear, I think that the sort of self flagging you describe can be contextually very useful. I just resist the idea of making it a blanket, context-free rule.
One think I think might be a useful compromise would be to add a “rant/uncharitable/psychologizing” emoticon as an option for LessWrong comments, possibly along with emoticons related to whether the comment is or is not adding useful context/is relevant/is more helpful than harmful or vice versa. This gives a way for the community to share information about how they perceive comments like these, giving the advantage you were looking for in having such rants be labeled as such. It allows the original ranter to say what they want to say. It gives them feedback on how they’re perceived rather than forcing them to make assumptions. And I think that it’s easier to unfavorably emoticon a high status figure’s post or comment than to actually write out a comment that provides a wider attack surface for punishment.
For in person interactions obviously this is no solution, so take this as all primarily being my opinions on online discourse.
Or: the generalized version of this is, “notice when you are doing something you wouldn’t endorse doing all the time, and flag it with a quick observation, and apology if it seems like it’d impose costs on others.” That seems like a generally good metahabit to me.
Taking that literally, there are a tremendous number of acts that might cost others or that might be only appropriate in context. Having to specially flag everything fitting that criteria seems onerous.
More generally, I think it’s important to think through what the next issues become after a norm like this is implemented. I anticipate you’ll have wildly asymmetric self-flagging based on social anxiety, the in-group popularity of the person or their ideas. Specifically, there will be some popular people who can freely rant and psychologize with no flagging, never getting called out, plenty of upvotes and no mod action when it happens online. But now there will be explicit grounds for sanction when less popular people fly against the ingroup and a built in reporting bias reinforcing locally favored views.
To be clear, I think that the sort of self flagging you describe can be contextually very useful. I just resist the idea of making it a blanket, context-free rule.
One think I think might be a useful compromise would be to add a “rant/uncharitable/psychologizing” emoticon as an option for LessWrong comments, possibly along with emoticons related to whether the comment is or is not adding useful context/is relevant/is more helpful than harmful or vice versa. This gives a way for the community to share information about how they perceive comments like these, giving the advantage you were looking for in having such rants be labeled as such. It allows the original ranter to say what they want to say. It gives them feedback on how they’re perceived rather than forcing them to make assumptions. And I think that it’s easier to unfavorably emoticon a high status figure’s post or comment than to actually write out a comment that provides a wider attack surface for punishment.
For in person interactions obviously this is no solution, so take this as all primarily being my opinions on online discourse.