If most other commentators all accept seeing each other’s input… then why should a small minority’s opinion or preferences matter enough to change what the overwhelming majority can see or comment on, anywhere on this site?
I can’t think of any successful forum whatsoever where that is the case, other than those where the small minority is literally paying the majority somehow.
If it was a whitelist system where everyone is forbidden from commenting by default there might be a sensible argument here… but in the current norm it can only cause more issues down the road.
Over the long time frame there will definitely be some who exploit it to play tricks… and once that takes hold I’m pretty sure LW will go down the tubes as even for the very virtuous and respectable… nobody is 100% confident that their decisions are free from any sort politiking or status games whatsoever. And obviously for Duncan I doubt anyone is even 95% confident.
If most other commentators all accept seeing each other’s input… then why should a small minority’s opinion or preferences matter enough to change what the overwhelming majority can see or comment on, anywhere on this site?
Because the post author is the person who gets the majority of the credit for the conversation existing in the first place. Something that makes them not-post-at-all is very costly for everyone.
True! What’s relevant about the current setup is that banned users can post anywhere else on the site equally well after they’re banned from a particular author (e.g. quick takes, posts, open thread) whereas previously there was nowhere for the author to post in a way that would reliably not have the unpleasant-to-them-user able to post in reply.
That doesn’t seem true in my experience. For example I recently wanted to post a comment asking a question about the new book that’s been heavily promoted and I found, only after writing it out, that So8res inexplicably banned me from commenting.
And I can’t see any other place where I could post a specific question about that book “equally well”.
If most other commentators all accept seeing each other’s input… then why should a small minority’s opinion or preferences matter enough to change what the overwhelming majority can see or comment on, anywhere on this site?
I can’t think of any successful forum whatsoever where that is the case, other than those where the small minority is literally paying the majority somehow.
If it was a whitelist system where everyone is forbidden from commenting by default there might be a sensible argument here… but in the current norm it can only cause more issues down the road.
Over the long time frame there will definitely be some who exploit it to play tricks… and once that takes hold I’m pretty sure LW will go down the tubes as even for the very virtuous and respectable… nobody is 100% confident that their decisions are free from any sort politiking or status games whatsoever. And obviously for Duncan I doubt anyone is even 95% confident.
Because the post author is the person who gets the majority of the credit for the conversation existing in the first place. Something that makes them not-post-at-all is very costly for everyone.
This logic also applies to commenters whose top-level comments start discussions.
True! What’s relevant about the current setup is that banned users can post anywhere else on the site equally well after they’re banned from a particular author (e.g. quick takes, posts, open thread) whereas previously there was nowhere for the author to post in a way that would reliably not have the unpleasant-to-them-user able to post in reply.
That doesn’t seem true in my experience. For example I recently wanted to post a comment asking a question about the new book that’s been heavily promoted and I found, only after writing it out, that So8res inexplicably banned me from commenting.
And I can’t see any other place where I could post a specific question about that book “equally well”.
I think a shortform would work fine?