it’s not like there’s anything I can do about it anyway.
It’s sad it’s gotten that bad with the current iteration of LW. Users here used to think they have a chance at influencing how things are done and plenty of things were heavily community-influenced despite having a benevolent dictator for life.
Users here used to think they have a chance at influencing how things are done and plenty of things were heavily community-influenced despite having a benevolent dictator for life.
I wasn’t really intending to criticize the status quo. Social consensus has its place. I’m not sure moderation decisions like this one require social consensus.
I think you are misunderstanding the comment above. As moridinamael says, this is about the counterfactual in which the moderation team goes crazy for some reason, which I think mostly bottoms out in where the actual power lies. If Eliezer decides to ban everyone tomorrow, he was always able to do that, and I don’t think anyone would really have the ability to stop him now (since MIRI still owns the URL and a lot of the data). This has always been the case, and if anything is less the case now, but in either case is a counterfactual I don’t think we should optimize too much for.
It’s sad it’s gotten that bad with the current iteration of LW. Users here used to think they have a chance at influencing how things are done and plenty of things were heavily community-influenced despite having a benevolent dictator for life.
That is… not how I would characterize the days when Eliezer was the primary moderator.
I mean, he uses the exact same phrase I do here but yes, I see your point.
I wasn’t really intending to criticize the status quo. Social consensus has its place. I’m not sure moderation decisions like this one require social consensus.
I think you are misunderstanding the comment above. As moridinamael says, this is about the counterfactual in which the moderation team goes crazy for some reason, which I think mostly bottoms out in where the actual power lies. If Eliezer decides to ban everyone tomorrow, he was always able to do that, and I don’t think anyone would really have the ability to stop him now (since MIRI still owns the URL and a lot of the data). This has always been the case, and if anything is less the case now, but in either case is a counterfactual I don’t think we should optimize too much for.