I’m not sure I share your view, I believe that new user care more about active discussions than reading already established content. I may very much be wrong here.
I agree with you
I think there is more posts about AI now than posts about Covid back then, but I see your point. There were indeed a lot of posts about Covid.
You may be right regarding what new users care about—usually one registers on a site to comment on a discussion, for example -, but the problem is that from that perspective, LW is definitely about AI, no matter what the New User’s Guide or the mods or the long-term users say. After all, AI-related news is the primary reason behind the increased influx of new users to LW, so those users are presumably here for AI content.
One way in which the guide and mod team try to counteract that impression is by showing new users curated stuff from the archives, but it might also be warranted to further deemphasize the feed.
I’m a new member here and curious about the site’s view on responding to really old threads. My first comment was on a post that turned out to be four years old. It was a post by Wei Dai and appeared at the top of the page today, so I assumed it was new. I found the content to be relevant, but I’d like to know if there is a shared notion of “don’t reply to posts that are more than X amount in the past.”
I love getting comments on old posts! (There would be less reason to write if all writing were doomed to be ephemera; the reverse-chronological format of blogs shouldn’t be a straitjacket or death sentence for ideas.)
Absolutely. I’ve just gotten a 30-day trial for Matt Yglesias’ SlowBoring substack, and figured I’d look through the archives… But then I immediately realized that Substack, just like reddit etc., practically doesn’t care about preserving, curating or resurfacing old content. Gwern has a point here on internet communities prioritizing content on different timescales by design, and in that context, LessWrong’s attempts to preserve old content are extremely rare.
I’m very confident that there is no norm of pushing people away from posting on old threads. I’m generally confident that most people appreciate comments on old posts. However, I think it is also true that comments on old posts are unlikely to be seen, voted on, or responded to.
(actually your comment here makes me realize we should probably somehow indicate when there are new comments on the top-of-the-page spotlight post, so people can more easily see and continue the convo)
So does LessWrong, but they quickly disappear (because there’s a high volume of comments). GreaterWrong doesn’t have Spotlight Items so the point is a bit moot, but the idea here is that everyone is nudged more to see new comments on the current Spotlight Item on LessWrong.
Good points
I’m not sure I share your view, I believe that new user care more about active discussions than reading already established content. I may very much be wrong here.
I agree with you
I think there is more posts about AI now than posts about Covid back then, but I see your point. There were indeed a lot of posts about Covid.
Thank you
You may be right regarding what new users care about—usually one registers on a site to comment on a discussion, for example -, but the problem is that from that perspective, LW is definitely about AI, no matter what the New User’s Guide or the mods or the long-term users say. After all, AI-related news is the primary reason behind the increased influx of new users to LW, so those users are presumably here for AI content.
One way in which the guide and mod team try to counteract that impression is by showing new users curated stuff from the archives, but it might also be warranted to further deemphasize the feed.
I’m a new member here and curious about the site’s view on responding to really old threads. My first comment was on a post that turned out to be four years old. It was a post by Wei Dai and appeared at the top of the page today, so I assumed it was new. I found the content to be relevant, but I’d like to know if there is a shared notion of “don’t reply to posts that are more than X amount in the past.”
I love getting comments on old posts! (There would be less reason to write if all writing were doomed to be ephemera; the reverse-chronological format of blogs shouldn’t be a straitjacket or death sentence for ideas.)
Absolutely. I’ve just gotten a 30-day trial for Matt Yglesias’ SlowBoring substack, and figured I’d look through the archives… But then I immediately realized that Substack, just like reddit etc., practically doesn’t care about preserving, curating or resurfacing old content. Gwern has a point here on internet communities prioritizing content on different timescales by design, and in that context, LessWrong’s attempts to preserve old content are extremely rare.
I’m very confident that there is no norm of pushing people away from posting on old threads. I’m generally confident that most people appreciate comments on old posts. However, I think it is also true that comments on old posts are unlikely to be seen, voted on, or responded to.
I agree that if at all there is a counternorm to that, and also with the observation that such comments are often (sadly) ignored.
It’s totally normal to comment on old posts. We deliberate design the forum to make it easier to do and for people to see that you have.
(actually your comment here makes me realize we should probably somehow indicate when there are new comments on the top-of-the-page spotlight post, so people can more easily see and continue the convo)
GreaterWrong shows new comments regardless.
So does LessWrong, but they quickly disappear (because there’s a high volume of comments). GreaterWrong doesn’t have Spotlight Items so the point is a bit moot, but the idea here is that everyone is nudged more to see new comments on the current Spotlight Item on LessWrong.
(i.e. this thing at the top:
)