No, “distressed children” refers to people upset by the basilisk who feel they can’t talk about it on LW so they email us, presumably as the only people on the Internet bothering to talk about LW. This was somewhat surprising.
I presume it would include things that David Gerard could not repeat here. After all that’s why the folk in question contacted people from the Rational Wiki community in the first place!
Actually, I may have just answered my own question by reading the RW page on the b*s*l*sk that three prominent blogs and a discussion forum recently all linked to. Does reading that calm them down?
The “So you’re worrying about the Basilisk” bit is a distillation of stuff that’s helped people and is specifically for that purpose. (e.g., the “Commit not to accept acausal blackmail” section strikes me as too in-universe, but XiXiDu says that idea’s actually been helpful to people who’ve come to him.) It could probably do with more. The probability discussion in the section above arguably belongs in it, but it’s still way too long.
so they email us, presumably as the only people on the Internet bothering to talk about LW.
Or more likely, because RW has been the only place you could actually learn about it in the first place (for the last two years at least). So, I really don’t think you have any reason to complain about getting those emails.
Haha, what is this offline you speak of? You’re correct that I didn’t think of that. However wouldn’t they then already have someone to talk to about this, and not need to email people on the internet?
Either way, my point still stands. If you co-author an article on any topic X and let that article be linked to a way of contacting you (by either email or PM), then you cannot complain about people contacting you regarding topic X.
No, “distressed children” refers to people upset by the basilisk who feel they can’t talk about it on LW so they email us, presumably as the only people on the Internet bothering to talk about LW. This was somewhat surprising.
Well then, that’s the reputation problem solved. If it’s only RationalWiki...
What do you tell them?
I presume it would include things that David Gerard could not repeat here. After all that’s why the folk in question contacted people from the Rational Wiki community in the first place!
Actually, I may have just answered my own question by reading the RW page on the b*s*l*sk that three prominent blogs and a discussion forum recently all linked to. Does reading that calm them down?
The “So you’re worrying about the Basilisk” bit is a distillation of stuff that’s helped people and is specifically for that purpose. (e.g., the “Commit not to accept acausal blackmail” section strikes me as too in-universe, but XiXiDu says that idea’s actually been helpful to people who’ve come to him.) It could probably do with more. The probability discussion in the section above arguably belongs in it, but it’s still way too long.
Or more likely, because RW has been the only place you could actually learn about it in the first place (for the last two years at least). So, I really don’t think you have any reason to complain about getting those emails.
That’s not strictly true; for instance, it may be discussed offline!
Haha, what is this offline you speak of? You’re correct that I didn’t think of that. However wouldn’t they then already have someone to talk to about this, and not need to email people on the internet?
Either way, my point still stands. If you co-author an article on any topic X and let that article be linked to a way of contacting you (by either email or PM), then you cannot complain about people contacting you regarding topic X.