This comment came after deletion; I wanted to note that this kind of evidence of engagement in the community and willingness to address issues increases my confidence in it long term.
What I would normally expect in online forums is for a critical post to stay up, and if another person expressed unhappiness for that to change nothing, and for this to result in less engagement or to persist as ongoing acrimony which might spill over into other posts. Purely selfishly, I don’t like seeing those kinds of things happen; as a consequence my engagement would tend to decrease.
From only seeing your retraction, I can update in favor of that not happening and instead have a soft assumption that similar interactions are being handled, and if I see one that isn’t it is probably an exception and not the rule, which addresses my selfish concerns. Further, it increases my confidence that you and Ozy will both continue to write and therefore I expect good contributors to be preserved going forward.
Since we are less likely to lose good contributors over time, and through that lose passive observers over time (insofar as I am a stand-in), it increases my confidence in the long-term health of the community.
Maintaining good will takes challenging maintenance work, I think this qualifies, and I wanted to recognize it.
I don’t know. This make me anxious about writing critical posts in the future. I was about to begin to write another post that is similarly a criticism of an article wrote by someone else, and I don’t think I’m going to do so.
I’m torn. I don’t want you to be anxious about writing posts which happen to disagree with a point made by someone. Overall, writing more is better and I hope you don’t feel punished by your honorable (IMO) removal of the post. However, I don’t think LW is a good place for rebuttals of posts made elsewhere.
If you’re making a point of interest to rationalists, I’d recommend to make it stand alone, and refer in passing to the incorrect/misleading posts only as a pointer to a different take. I wouldn’t generally address it specifically to the outside poster, I’d make it more general than that.
This comment came after deletion; I wanted to note that this kind of evidence of engagement in the community and willingness to address issues increases my confidence in it long term.
Can I ask you what you mean by this ?
What I would normally expect in online forums is for a critical post to stay up, and if another person expressed unhappiness for that to change nothing, and for this to result in less engagement or to persist as ongoing acrimony which might spill over into other posts. Purely selfishly, I don’t like seeing those kinds of things happen; as a consequence my engagement would tend to decrease.
From only seeing your retraction, I can update in favor of that not happening and instead have a soft assumption that similar interactions are being handled, and if I see one that isn’t it is probably an exception and not the rule, which addresses my selfish concerns. Further, it increases my confidence that you and Ozy will both continue to write and therefore I expect good contributors to be preserved going forward.
Since we are less likely to lose good contributors over time, and through that lose passive observers over time (insofar as I am a stand-in), it increases my confidence in the long-term health of the community.
Maintaining good will takes challenging maintenance work, I think this qualifies, and I wanted to recognize it.
I don’t know. This make me anxious about writing critical posts in the future. I was about to begin to write another post that is similarly a criticism of an article wrote by someone else, and I don’t think I’m going to do so.
I’m torn. I don’t want you to be anxious about writing posts which happen to disagree with a point made by someone. Overall, writing more is better and I hope you don’t feel punished by your honorable (IMO) removal of the post. However, I don’t think LW is a good place for rebuttals of posts made elsewhere.
If you’re making a point of interest to rationalists, I’d recommend to make it stand alone, and refer in passing to the incorrect/misleading posts only as a pointer to a different take. I wouldn’t generally address it specifically to the outside poster, I’d make it more general than that.
Just wanted to say I endorse and appreciate this advice.
Thirded.
This is excellent advice. Are you a moderator ?
Nope, just a consumer making use of a feedback channel to help a producer (you) make more stuff I want to read :)