I’m having the same dilemma right now where my genuine comments are getting voted into the negative and I’m starting to feel really bad for trying to satisfy my own personal curiosity at the expense of eating up peoples time with content they think is low quality (yes yes, I know that that doesn’t mean it is low quality per se, but it is a close enough heuristic that I’m mostly willing to stick to it). But the downvotes are very clear so while I’m disappointed that we couldn’t talk through this issue, I will no longer be eating up peoples time.
The only comments of yours that I see downvoted into the negative are the two prior conversations in this thread. Were there others that are now positive again?
While I generally support the idea that it’s better to stop posting than to continue to post things which will predictably be negative karma sum, I don’t think that’s necessary here. There’s plenty of room on LW for things other than curated posts sharing novel insights, and I think working through one’s own curiosity can be good not just for the individual in question, but any other lurkers who might have the same curiosities and for the community, as bringing people up to speed is an important part of helping them learn to interact best with the community.
I think the down votes are about something else which is a lot more easily fixable. While I’m sure they were genuine, some of your comments strike me as not particularly charitable. In order to hold a productive conversation, people have to be able to build from a common understanding. The more work you put in to understanding where the other person is coming from and how it can be a coherent and reasonable stance to hold, the less effort it takes for them to communicate something that is understood. At some point, if you don’t put enough effort in you start to miss valid points which would have been easy for you to find and would be prohibitively difficult to word in a way that you wouldn’t miss.
As an example, you responded to Richard_Kenneway as if he thought you were lying despite the fact that he explicitly stated that he was not imputing any dishonesty. I’m not sure where you simply missed that part or whether you don’t believe him, but either way it is very hard to have a conversation with someone that doesn’t engage with points like this at least enough to say why they aren’t convinced. I think, with a little more effort put into understanding how your interlocutors might be making reasonable, charitable, and valid points, you will be able to avoid the down votes in the future. That’s not to say that you have to believe that they’re being reasonable/charitable/etc, or that you have to act like you do, but it’s nice to at least put in some real effort to check and give them a chance to show when they are. Because the tendency for people to fail on the side of “insufficiently charitable” is really really strong, and even when the uncharitable view is the correct one (not that common on LW), the best way to show it is often to be charitable and have it visibly not fit.
It’s a very common problem that comes up in conversation, especially when pushing into new territory. I wouldn’t sweat it.
Thanks, I hadn’t seen the edit.
The only comments of yours that I see downvoted into the negative are the two prior conversations in this thread. Were there others that are now positive again?
While I generally support the idea that it’s better to stop posting than to continue to post things which will predictably be negative karma sum, I don’t think that’s necessary here. There’s plenty of room on LW for things other than curated posts sharing novel insights, and I think working through one’s own curiosity can be good not just for the individual in question, but any other lurkers who might have the same curiosities and for the community, as bringing people up to speed is an important part of helping them learn to interact best with the community.
I think the down votes are about something else which is a lot more easily fixable. While I’m sure they were genuine, some of your comments strike me as not particularly charitable. In order to hold a productive conversation, people have to be able to build from a common understanding. The more work you put in to understanding where the other person is coming from and how it can be a coherent and reasonable stance to hold, the less effort it takes for them to communicate something that is understood. At some point, if you don’t put enough effort in you start to miss valid points which would have been easy for you to find and would be prohibitively difficult to word in a way that you wouldn’t miss.
As an example, you responded to Richard_Kenneway as if he thought you were lying despite the fact that he explicitly stated that he was not imputing any dishonesty. I’m not sure where you simply missed that part or whether you don’t believe him, but either way it is very hard to have a conversation with someone that doesn’t engage with points like this at least enough to say why they aren’t convinced. I think, with a little more effort put into understanding how your interlocutors might be making reasonable, charitable, and valid points, you will be able to avoid the down votes in the future. That’s not to say that you have to believe that they’re being reasonable/charitable/etc, or that you have to act like you do, but it’s nice to at least put in some real effort to check and give them a chance to show when they are. Because the tendency for people to fail on the side of “insufficiently charitable” is really really strong, and even when the uncharitable view is the correct one (not that common on LW), the best way to show it is often to be charitable and have it visibly not fit.
It’s a very common problem that comes up in conversation, especially when pushing into new territory. I wouldn’t sweat it.