Yeah, this is basically the only option right now isn’t it? The question of how to identify ourselves to people who don’t read the site is totally irrelevant until the site gains serious notoriety. I can think of maybe three internet communities that can successfully be identified by using names they gave themselves and for the most part they aren’t flattering comparisons. I don’t think lesswrong dot com is on the verge of leading a global movement that would require a pithy label.
All that matters then is whether or not it is convenient and whether or not using “rationalist” is deterring new readers from sticking around. Rationalist is definitely is a convenient word to use but I don’t think it is indispensable. It also looks like we have medium-to-strong anecdotal evidence that using it might be deterring potential new users (on the other hand it could be attracting other users and we have no particular reason to expect such people to point to the use of the word rationalist as a reason for them sticking around).
I think the answer is probably that we have already spent to much time thinking about this question and that there is no way to legislate what we call ourselves. If people want to keep “rationalist” from becoming an entrenched label they should just keep using terms other than “rationalist” so that no word ever becomes the official label.
Yeah, this is basically the only option right now isn’t it? The question of how to identify ourselves to people who don’t read the site is totally irrelevant until the site gains serious notoriety. I can think of maybe three internet communities that can successfully be identified by using names they gave themselves and for the most part they aren’t flattering comparisons. I don’t think lesswrong dot com is on the verge of leading a global movement that would require a pithy label.
All that matters then is whether or not it is convenient and whether or not using “rationalist” is deterring new readers from sticking around. Rationalist is definitely is a convenient word to use but I don’t think it is indispensable. It also looks like we have medium-to-strong anecdotal evidence that using it might be deterring potential new users (on the other hand it could be attracting other users and we have no particular reason to expect such people to point to the use of the word rationalist as a reason for them sticking around).
I think the answer is probably that we have already spent to much time thinking about this question and that there is no way to legislate what we call ourselves. If people want to keep “rationalist” from becoming an entrenched label they should just keep using terms other than “rationalist” so that no word ever becomes the official label.