I’m new to LW and I’ve discovered it’s a place where the argument quality is really taken seriously. I’ve been building an online debate platform called Agora on the same premise. Certain UX structural requirements introduce friction into the publishing flow seen on other sites like Reddit, X, Facebook, etc. You must state your inferential step, you must engage with your strongest counterargument, and you can earn prestige through argument quality as determined by user votes and an AI coach. The site is live at debateagora.org. A few things I’d like the community to weigh in on: Can you get a high score on a weak, but carefully written argument? Does toggling Blind Read Mode, which strips author names, stance colors, and political labels, actually change how you read an argument? Is “neutral reading” even a rational goal? Can the prestige metric of Epistemic weight be gamed with coordination? These are all things I’d love the LW user base to give me feedback on because I know this is the best place for structured, substantive dialogue. Happy to share the GitHub repo and discuss any of the design decisions.
Hi everyone,
I’m new to LW and I’ve discovered it’s a place where the argument quality is really taken seriously. I’ve been building an online debate platform called Agora on the same premise. Certain UX structural requirements introduce friction into the publishing flow seen on other sites like Reddit, X, Facebook, etc. You must state your inferential step, you must engage with your strongest counterargument, and you can earn prestige through argument quality as determined by user votes and an AI coach. The site is live at debateagora.org. A few things I’d like the community to weigh in on: Can you get a high score on a weak, but carefully written argument? Does toggling Blind Read Mode, which strips author names, stance colors, and political labels, actually change how you read an argument? Is “neutral reading” even a rational goal? Can the prestige metric of Epistemic weight be gamed with coordination? These are all things I’d love the LW user base to give me feedback on because I know this is the best place for structured, substantive dialogue. Happy to share the GitHub repo and discuss any of the design decisions.