Like a lot of “what’s allowed on LW” questions, the answer is a bit subtle. Questions are supported as a post type, and are very much appreciated when they elicit information that’s not otherwise easily available. But some topics/questions will get more engagement than others, and a lot depends on whether you’re asking something fairly straightforward/basic, which 20 minutes with a Claude Fable or ChatGPT Sol model could have fully answered.
Best advice is to lurk for a bit, search for old questions to see what gets the kind of responses you’re looking for, then try maybe a shortform post with the puzzle or question you’re exploring. Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t get much, try a few times over a couple of weeks to see if anything resonates (and especially if anything gets negative attention, then make a post or question. Go slow, especially if you’re seeing downvotes. most questions take a few days or a week for the active members to see them and decide whether or not to engage.
Edit: oh, wait! you’ve been around for awhile, and already made some posts. can you ask more specifically about what information you’re seeking?
Edit: oh, wait! you’ve been around for awhile, and already made some posts. can you ask more specifically about what information you’re seeking?
I don’t feel like I’ve really been around, or made a proper meaty, non-meta post (although I’m drafting one right now!). My original question was something like..
Is this a thing? Was there ever an era where people did this?
Have you wanted to do this? What did you do instead?
A good answer to the second question, I’m surmising, is something like what you say:
Notice question arise. Spend up to 20 minutes with Fable/Sol. Intellectually digest it, noticing what feels answered and what doesn’t, and how you’d explain it to someone else. Put THAT in a post maybe!
This is like StackOverflow’s post-Google, pre-LLM ask of question askers to have done their homework by Googling their questions with a few obvious keywords.
Like a lot of “what’s allowed on LW” questions, the answer is a bit subtle.
Yeah, it’s interesting, “is X allowed?” is a question that newbies to a community often ask, and the answer is always sorta “uh, sorta? no one is the hall monitor here. but you may wanna reply a bunch first and pick up on what the vibe is and you will have a more instinctive understanding that makes the question as posed in its abstraction seem wrong to you too.”
Like a lot of “what’s allowed on LW” questions, the answer is a bit subtle. Questions are supported as a post type, and are very much appreciated when they elicit information that’s not otherwise easily available. But some topics/questions will get more engagement than others, and a lot depends on whether you’re asking something fairly straightforward/basic, which 20 minutes with a Claude Fable or ChatGPT Sol model could have fully answered.
Best advice is to lurk for a bit, search for old questions to see what gets the kind of responses you’re looking for, then try maybe a shortform post with the puzzle or question you’re exploring. Don’t get discouraged if it doesn’t get much, try a few times over a couple of weeks to see if anything resonates (and especially if anything gets negative attention, then make a post or question. Go slow, especially if you’re seeing downvotes. most questions take a few days or a week for the active members to see them and decide whether or not to engage.
Edit: oh, wait! you’ve been around for awhile, and already made some posts. can you ask more specifically about what information you’re seeking?
I don’t feel like I’ve really been around, or made a proper meaty, non-meta post (although I’m drafting one right now!). My original question was something like..
Is this a thing? Was there ever an era where people did this?
Have you wanted to do this? What did you do instead?
The answer to the first question is “yes! there was a questions feature (now deprecated).”
A good answer to the second question, I’m surmising, is something like what you say:
Notice question arise.
Spend up to 20 minutes with Fable/Sol.
Intellectually digest it, noticing what feels answered and what doesn’t, and how you’d explain it to someone else.
Put THAT in a post maybe!
This is like StackOverflow’s post-Google, pre-LLM ask of question askers to have done their homework by Googling their questions with a few obvious keywords.
Yeah, it’s interesting, “is X allowed?” is a question that newbies to a community often ask, and the answer is always sorta “uh, sorta? no one is the hall monitor here. but you may wanna reply a bunch first and pick up on what the vibe is and you will have a more instinctive understanding that makes the question as posed in its abstraction seem wrong to you too.”