Imagine that two years in the future someone decides to manufacture a controversy in media, where the LW website and/or the rationalist community will be accused of horrible things. When the fake news get out, other media start copying it blindly, and after too many people jumped on the bandwagon, no one will want to admit they actually made a mistake.
The whole Twitter will shake with rage, users demanding the worst punishments for anyone associated with LW.
Imagine yourself on that day, thinking about today—will you wish you would have done something differently?
The whole Twitter will shake with rage, users demanding the worst punishments for anyone associated with LW.
Currently that’s not happening even for websites who do have a lot of controversy. Randomly targeting every user of a website doesn’t fit into the pattern.
Just as counterpoint: Now imagine that two years in the future some people from the LW community have impressed others enough to gain a lot of status and power, and (perhaps because they credit LW for some of their success) LW becomes a place you would be positively proud to be associated with. Now what will you wish you had done differently?
(I think the downsides are bigger than the upsides overall, though neither is big enough for me to have taken any trouble to hide my real identity here.)
Imagine that two years in the future someone decides to manufacture a controversy in media, where the LW website and/or the rationalist community will be accused of horrible things. When the fake news get out, other media start copying it blindly, and after too many people jumped on the bandwagon, no one will want to admit they actually made a mistake.
The whole Twitter will shake with rage, users demanding the worst punishments for anyone associated with LW.
Imagine yourself on that day, thinking about today—will you wish you would have done something differently?
Currently that’s not happening even for websites who do have a lot of controversy. Randomly targeting every user of a website doesn’t fit into the pattern.
Just as counterpoint: Now imagine that two years in the future some people from the LW community have impressed others enough to gain a lot of status and power, and (perhaps because they credit LW for some of their success) LW becomes a place you would be positively proud to be associated with. Now what will you wish you had done differently?
(I think the downsides are bigger than the upsides overall, though neither is big enough for me to have taken any trouble to hide my real identity here.)