Writing this comment to provide social validation!
Like you, I have this norm in my head that I should only comment if I have something concrete to add, rather than to just encourage or discourage. But I wonder if this comes from a different context? I don’t remember how I learned this norm, but many places on the Internet get enough posts and comments at a low enough average quality that I don’t really value having another marginal post or comment unless it’s raising the average quality. By contrast, the marginal post or comment on LW is interesting to me even if it’s not raising the average quality, because the average quality is pretty high and I literally run out of posts and comments to read. So maybe the norm is not serving its original purpose.
Writing this comment to provide social validation!
Like you, I have this norm in my head that I should only comment if I have something concrete to add, rather than to just encourage or discourage. But I wonder if this comes from a different context? I don’t remember how I learned this norm, but many places on the Internet get enough posts and comments at a low enough average quality that I don’t really value having another marginal post or comment unless it’s raising the average quality. By contrast, the marginal post or comment on LW is interesting to me even if it’s not raising the average quality, because the average quality is pretty high and I literally run out of posts and comments to read. So maybe the norm is not serving its original purpose.
Social validation for the social validation! :)