Oh. Thanks for the explanation! Of course, needless to say, it wasn’t the reason for my bemusement—for one, it’s pretty obvious to everyone who reads the comments that people’s concern for how LW is viewed by women isn’t the reason why the thread has garnered so many responses. Given what people are saying, the number of comments isn’t evidence of their desire to get more women involved in the community, but rather of getting very eager at the opportunity to discuss something as controversial as this.
And that’s what surprised me—at least to my noob’s eye, LWers didn’t come across as the kinds of people who feel strongly about controversial topics; a more detached, analytical stance was more characteristic of the image I had about this site. I suppose I kind of generalized this impression into thinking that, on average, this was also how LWers thought of themselves and of each other. (Projection?) So, ordinarily you don’t see people spontaneously bringing up gender issues in normal conversation on this discussion board, but when someone makes it their personal initiative to see what’s up with the overwhelming maleness of this forum—holy mama! 300+ comments. It looked to me like bottling up one’s own interest in the matter, like people cared more than they were willing to admit. So I was like, “what the hell, I thought you guys were the dispassionate scientists looking at things objectively, why are you reacting to this like—like ordinary people?”
LWers didn’t come across as the kinds of people who feel strongly about controversial topics
Your perception is a product of topic selection. Certain topics are perceived as destabilizing of the community, and thus are downvoted viciously unless they are of unusual quality.
Since writing at that level of quality is hard, certain topics get discussed less. What does get discussed is the stuff where most of us are able to take a “more detached, analytical stance.”
Oh. Thanks for the explanation! Of course, needless to say, it wasn’t the reason for my bemusement—for one, it’s pretty obvious to everyone who reads the comments that people’s concern for how LW is viewed by women isn’t the reason why the thread has garnered so many responses. Given what people are saying, the number of comments isn’t evidence of their desire to get more women involved in the community, but rather of getting very eager at the opportunity to discuss something as controversial as this.
And that’s what surprised me—at least to my noob’s eye, LWers didn’t come across as the kinds of people who feel strongly about controversial topics; a more detached, analytical stance was more characteristic of the image I had about this site. I suppose I kind of generalized this impression into thinking that, on average, this was also how LWers thought of themselves and of each other. (Projection?) So, ordinarily you don’t see people spontaneously bringing up gender issues in normal conversation on this discussion board, but when someone makes it their personal initiative to see what’s up with the overwhelming maleness of this forum—holy mama! 300+ comments. It looked to me like bottling up one’s own interest in the matter, like people cared more than they were willing to admit. So I was like, “what the hell, I thought you guys were the dispassionate scientists looking at things objectively, why are you reacting to this like—like ordinary people?”
Your perception is a product of topic selection. Certain topics are perceived as destabilizing of the community, and thus are downvoted viciously unless they are of unusual quality.
Since writing at that level of quality is hard, certain topics get discussed less. What does get discussed is the stuff where most of us are able to take a “more detached, analytical stance.”