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PaperclipPerfector  9mo ago (text post)   4131 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 18, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Does anybody else feel like the Motte is their internet home?

I go to other websites. I probably spend more time on them than here.

But the Motte just feels cozy to me. It's where I usually check first, and where I get most excited if I see a lot of activity. Something about this place pulls at my heartstrings.

I find it more like a pub or club that I keep stumbling back to than a home. A wretched hive of scum and villainy as it were.

yeah it's nice to get a taste of it every now and then. On the rest of social media it's all degenerate lefties, I need to see some degenerate cons to keep me in balance

It's a pretty good forum with some rare qualities, but I don't like how it cozies up to the several nazis who frequent the place. That's why it can't be a home for me.

Yeah.

The Motte has spoiled me. The rest of the internet is one big pile of screaming monkeys to me.

Yes. Because of the consistently high quality of top line posts and a definite majority (70%+) of replies and comments.

I always wonder if this is because we're just hard enough to find (i.e. not being on /r/) that it takes some effort to join or, probably more likely, because of a lot of dedicated work on the part of the mods. Thanks, Mods.

Does anybody else feel like the Motte is their internet home?

Not me. Not really, anyway. It's just that I manage to get a bit more engagement and discussion here than in some of the more "comfortable" places I also frequent (Tumblr and the Dreaded Jim's blog, mostly).

What is the Dreaded Jim’s blog? Google doesn’t help much, got a link?

Link

Yeah, definitely. I post only here and on a few other obscure hobby forums, and I avoid all other social media.

Plus, any time I post a very thoughtful analysis of something on a hobby forum, I get very little engagement because my kind of analytical dissection isn't really what most people are looking for from their social media. I can't post clapback tweets, I can't do it, so the motte is the only place online that tolerates my kind of lengthy diatribes. Fortunately I have a few people in real life who seem to appreciate having those kinds of discussions with me.

Fortunately I have a few people in real life who seem to appreciate having those kinds of discussions with me.

I use this place to refine being able to have those discussions. It's very valuable as a rubber-duck service.

Definitely, I’ve commented on it before but it has a rare combination of people who are smart, intellectually curious, intellectually honest, and have a high openness to experience. And it’s largely this way thanks to the Bay Area Rationalist writers cultivating an audience with these qualities. If you advertised your forum as being a place for smart, curious, open-minded people, it wouldn’t attract nearly the same caliber of users.

I’ll second @bolido_sentimental ‘s idea that it should be used for more general purpose discussion. It’s sort of arbitrary that the Culture War Thread is the site’s main weekly thread. Even if it did start as a more CW-oriented version of the SlateStarCodex subreddit, the userbases have noticeably diverged and many people here are well-informed on topics outside the CW, and most of the broader CW discussions have been had. I think the Maker’s Monday is a great start, enjoyed reading about the projects people have been working on.

Well then start more general discussion.

I’d like to, there are some topics I have in mind. But where exactly do I post about them? Right now the main threads are focused on culture war, health & wellness, personal projects, questions, fun, and small-scale questions. What if I just want to share my thoughts on an issue without making a top-level post? Or is the bar for top-level posts not actually that high? Seems few people actually take advantage of the ability. Relegating all the top-level posts to one of the weekly threads seems like a holdover from the days of Reddit where it helped us not get banned, but doesn’t seem like there’s much of a reason for it now.

Well, first off a lot of topics you have in mind likely fit in one of the threads- hobbies could go in projects or fun, wellness Wednesday is open to any self improvement topic, etc.

I also think the bar for a top level comment is lower than you think. Like what topics do you have in mind?

I was referring to separate threads not just top-level comments. I’ve been meaning to make effort posts on Georgism/Land Value Tax, various topics in philosophy of mind, my thoughts on the sociology of religion.

It'd be cool if we got a second weekly (or whatever duration works best) thread for generic non-politics-related effort-intensive posts. I think I like that better than having separate top level posts, ordinarily.

@Amadan (or whoever) might this be worth doing?

All of those seem like they hit the requirements for a post, though.

Oh yeah, for sure. It's interesting for me because I honestly try to keep the Culture War out of my own life. I don't use X, I don't really read the news; as a result I never have anything to make top-level posts about in the CW thread. Nevertheless, this is where I come when I want to read real analysis of events and ideas; and sometimes I wish that there was more general-purpose discussion on The Motte, like DSL has.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


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