Well, no. You're right that just saying "False" would get dinged for being low-effort, but he added quite a bit more than that.
He added quite a bit of unnecessary words to fluff the length of his post, which is my point.
You clearly do not like people talking about things that are of no interest to you, or using more words than you want to read. And well, you've got a really good and easy solution to that: don't read posts that don't interest you.
Then what is the purpose of this forum? What is the purpose of moderation at all? Is the idea of community standard interesting? Is the idea of discussing the way people here use words, and the way they could (likely are) using LLMs to fluff their posts up interesting?
"don't read posts that don't interest you"
Clearly this post does interest me. Clearly most things posted in the CWR interest me. You said the exact same thing to me when you got offended/defensive at my criticism of some girl posting ridiculous surveys the other week, suggesting that I'm disinterested in something because I am critical of it.
No, I am quite interested in the way that people signal things to one another. I think that is essentially core to the culture war, and since this entire thread and raison d'etre for this website is discussion of the culture war, I think it's completely reasonable to talk about the ways in which people wage it.
firmamenti
2yr ago
this is plainly, obviously false
Let's go line by line and see if there is any information in your post that goes beyond "I disagree":
Goodness no. Longer posts, please. The moderation guidelines for top level posts in the CW threads are fine the way they are, and if anything they should be tightened up a bit.
In summary: you disagree. Although "longer posts, please" does come close to going beyond "I disagree", it is in direct response to me saying I want shorter posts. Maybe instead of the total information in your post being "I disagree", it could be "I disagree. I would prefer longer posts."
I don't think I've ever read a post on TheMotte that I would describe as "long and low density". Pretty much every post here is either quite enjoyable to read, or it's on a topic I'm not interested in to begin with, in which case I just ignore it.
You are literally quoting something from my comment here, and then...saying that you disagree with it.
I don't think anyone here does that.
Again you are quoting me and simply saying that you disagree.
In none of this do you link to any examples of why you disagree or do you include any new information or ideas other than your disagreement.
firmamenti
2yr ago
This post is short, but kindof exemplifies what I’m talking about. Here is the total information contained in your post:
I disagree.
You could even have just replied
disagree
Or even
false
And no information would be lost. Your post contributes nothing to the discussion behind “I disagree”.
And yet I suspect that a one word reply of “false” would get moderator threats. Because you made your post longer than it needs to be it will stand.
firmamenti
2yr ago
I agree with this completely. There seems to be a trend towards very long, and very low information density posts here, and it’s gotten a lot worse.
Something I think that LLMs have taught us is that a very small input can generate a very large output that still contains the same information.
“Trans people are exploiting the historical oppression of gay people as a recruiting tool for their sexual fetish, which I think is unfair” could easily be expanded into 5-6 paragraphs using an LLM.
The first statement would get you threatened with a ban here, whereas the longer LLM’d version (which contains no additional entropy), wouldn’t.
I’m reminded of this famous Seneca quote:
"You complain of avarice; but wasting of time is one of its forms. We waste time more recklessly than our most precious possession, and in comparison with it, property has only second rank. People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy."
I think this trend (and enforcement of it) of creating long, low density posts is a waste of people’s time. We should encourage brevity here, and not look at length as a substitution for quality.
firmamenti
2yr ago
She basically says exactly this in the video.
firmamenti
2yr ago
I'm not impressed with this sort of rhetoric.
You cut one of my sentences in half to make your point, and then you accused me of bad faith argument.
The rest of the statement which you cut off was: "not an apocalypse for the people who understand computer programming from first principles."
This is not a motte and bailey. You either didn't read the rest of my comment, or you are being deliberately misleading in your characterization of it.
Either way: don't do this.
firmamenti
2yr ago
I say:
go to church
start a family
And you internet this as “isolate yourself from society and pay no respect to the people who came before you”?
Just to be clear when i say “go to church”, I mean specifically a Catholic Church. There could not exist another institution on planet earth that is more of a strong indicator that you should stand in the shoulders of the people who came before you.
The people mining the good out of society are people running porn websites, and AB testing headlines and algorithmic content feeds to see which ones make people hate each other more, and then buy the products that they’re selling. Onlyfans is mining the good out of society, blackrock is mining the good out of society, McKinsey consulting is mining the good out of society
Porn websites and management consulting agencies did not invent pottery, crop rotation, iron smelting, or anything else. The fact that you either think otherwise or think that “go to church and start a family” somehow means “throw away every good discovery ever made by mankind” is certainly telling of something.
firmamenti
2yr ago
Based and eggpilled.
Seriously love chickens. They are equally stupid and annoying, and beautiful. They also make fantastic babysitters for #2 and will entertain them for HOURS. Highly recommend.
-
Go to church
-
Have kids
-
Buy land
-
Acquire chickens
Simple as.
I truly think people are almost embarrassingly overstating the importance of the AI apocalypse. Maybe an apocalypse for twitter and other online spaces, maybe an apocalypse “just a barely intelligent warm body” call center jobs, maybe an apocalypse for bootcampers making $300k/yr gluing JavaScript frameworks with cute names together.
Not an apocalypse for anybody with a skill set that can exist completely independent of the internet, not an apocalypse for the people who understand computer programming from first principles.
In the sense the AI will bankrupt the people who have been mining the good out of society while contributing absolutely nothing of value to it, it is a massive net good. I absolutely welcome our AI overlords. Show me who is posting the MOST human-passing-but-totally-useless-garbage on twitter, or trapping the MOST ethical non-monogamist coombrained Reddit atheism posters into pointless time wasting arguments and I will either go work for them for free, or donate compute time to them.
Let’s fucking go.
firmamenti
2yr ago
It’s a good distinction. For instance: Al Jazeera has generally been considered good, except for when talking about Saudi Arabia.
The BBC, NPR, Al Jazeera, RT, SCMP, etc are state sponsored. This may harm the idea that the employees there have about “speaking truth to power”, but it’s not untrue.
firmamenti
2yr ago
Where are you reading about the nature of the discord channel?
firmamenti
2yr ago
Does anybody have a motte-adjacent forum for discussing current geopolitical events? For instance: NK just fired another missile over Japan.
Back in ancient times, there would be a Reddit thread about this within a few seconds of it happening.
Those days are obviously long gone.
For a while, chans were actually unbelievable for this. Within seconds they would have had the missile, it’s trajectory, it’s make and model, potential warheads, etc. For the people that never experienced that era, it’s seriously indescribable how fast those people would gather intel.
Where has all of that gone? Chans have got eternal September and now seem to be legitimately horrible brain poisoned places.
firmamenti
2yr ago
A culture which has convinced a woman to:
-
Reject the ideas of love in favor of "polyamory"
-
Believe that they should or even can realistically wait until their late 30s to have children
and the discussion of that culture is about as on the nose culture war as could possibly exist.
One on SSC. The MR comments, the Twitter mentions, I'm sure ACX has an open thread for it.
Do most people here go to all of these other places? I don't.
firmamenti
2yr ago
Is it that she’s older and polyamorous?
Yes.
firmamenti
2yr ago
This is profoundly depressing.
36 years old. You’re not having 3 kids unless start today, with no courtship, and absolutely turn and burn on the pregnancies (likely against the recommendation of your doctor).
This really highlights the asymmetry in dating. The type of guy she is wanting to “settle down” with is extremely high value.
I only say these things as a warning: if you want to avoid this you have to start NOW. Don’t plan on “settling down” later. You need to be “settling down” in your early 20s.
firmamenti
2yr ago
This was almost my exact reaction. I don't particularly care about the Dalai Llama, aside as an interesting tourist attraction, but...he's like a billion years old. Old people start to lose their mental faculties. He also has been known as a joker AFAIK, and this just seems like an old/senile person trying to be funny with a kid, or gross them out to make them laugh. It comes across as completely inappropriate but...old people are weird, and often crazy. This is an old person behaving crazy. He may have pooped his pants a few seconds later.
I think the people making a comparison to Biden are correct though. It seems wildly hypocritical that this is a "story" and the numerous videos of Biden behaving badly around children aren't/isn't.
firmamenti
2yr ago
How did it go?
firmamenti
2yr ago
Is Bezos killing the families of people trying to unionize? Blowing up their homes? Maybe razing the towns they live in?
No.
firmamenti
2yr ago
Because Bezos isn’t trying to manufacture consent for any wars he is waging.
firmamenti
2yr ago
I'm not sure but I would really encourage you to try it if you can! Keep in mind there are plenty of people playing golf well into their 80s.
firmamenti
2yr ago
And you can’t convince me that a game with infinite decision making time is more mentally demanding than one that actually requires reflexive genius.
Did I try to?
firmamenti
2yr ago
Otherwise I don't see why you wouldn't have just replied to my original comment and I could have responded to you there.
This is a strange behavior that I have noticed get worse and worse lately. We have threaded comments for a reason, and the top comments should act as an anchor for the topic. I echo your request for people to stop doing this. Please keep the discussions in their relevant threads. The obvious exception would be if you're responding to something from a previous week.
firmamenti
2yr ago
I don't agree about the social/upper class aspect of it, but that's probably because I'm playing with old friends, and we're all poors playing muni courses. Not a lot of fresh blood in my groups.
I don't mean to say that golf is exclusively an upper class thing. The course I spend most of my time at is $20/round 9 hole course. I just mean that if you wanted a route into that group, that golf could provide it, and the path is well laid out.
firmamenti
2yr ago
Find a cheap golfcourse near you, and go to the driving range (which is where golfers go to practice).
When you get there, you are going to look for the "pro shop" (this is a place that will have stuff for sale like clubs, shirts, etc. You can buy stuff from here, but...I wouldn't, unless you are buying stuff that has the course's branding on it and you want it as a sort of souvenir).
Tell them you want a bucket of balls. There is usually going to be two sizes, either small or large. Get a small one.
They will either hand you a bucket of balls, or a receipt that has a number on it. If they give you a receipt you take this to a machine near the driving range which will dispense the balls into a bucket for you.
In the driving range area, you'll see some sort of markers that show you where each individual person should stand while they hit their balls. Stand between the markers.
There are also tons of videos on youtube that will instruct you on things like how to grip the club (which is pretty important!).
Start with a club like a 9 iron[1]. Hit the ball much, MUCH more gently than you think you should. I'd highly recommend just swinging the club pretty slowly and concentrating on making contact with the ball. Seriously, how hard you hit the ball has way less of an effect than it would seem (this is counterintuitive).
When you're done with this, go back to the club house and sit at the crappy little restaurant they have a drink a beer. Congratulations, now you're a golfer!
Here's an intro golf lesson video you could watch that covers how to grip the club, etc: https://youtube.com/watch?v=1iOa2ZwGhbU
[1]: There are essentially two types of clubs. "Irons" and "Woods", so named because of the materials they used to be made from. Irons are smaller and wedge shaped. They are also shorter. "Woods" (which are no longer made of wood), have a more bulbous appearance, and much longer shafts. The numbers on the club indicate the angle at which they will strike the ball. Irons typically go from 3-9. 3 is the flattest angle while it contacts the ball, and 9 is the sharpest angle. 3 hits the ball the farthest, and 9 hits the ball the highest (and least far). When I say to get a "9 iron", this means the wedge shaped club with a 9 on it, and I'm telling you to hit with this club because it is the most forgiving.
Could firing him have been a condition of the settlement?
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