f3zinker
Its A/B testing all the way down
1yr ago·Edited 1yr ago
The solution to prevent the motte from becoming a "den of witches" whilst still preserving its founding ethos is... variability. The mottes generalist nature is a strength here.
The pertinent issue is that a certain group of people have an overwhelming axe to grind on a specific issue and there is just no way a neutral observer can even fight back because they did not spend a literal 1000 hours grinding whichever side of that axe. Resulting in evaporative cooling (People just don't like seeing things they disagree with over and over and over again, irrational yes, they can just ignore them, but they are still people).
However. Because the motte is generalist. A lot of discussions can concurrently take place on a lot of different topics. The axe grinders can grind their axe in the corner with their fellow enthusiasts and the others can have a discussion on something else entirely.
To prevent a specific topic from sucking out too much oxygen. The mods should probably.. limit the number of discussions on a specific topic if it starts getting unwieldy.
I'll drop my hot take here. If there are too many posts about the Jews or the Holocaust. The mods should just go "Alright, we have reached our Jew discussion quota for the next two days, time to move on to a new topic". I personally REALLY don't care about this topic, I don't care if it was 6 million or 600 or 600 septillion. That topic makes the motte worse for me.
The mods could also add a banner to a specific post such as "This is an Urban Planning post" or "This is a Holocaust skepticism post", allowing for people looking to grind their axes to find their fellow axe grinders. And there will be a limited number of banners allowed per day. Shitty idea, I know, but I am throwing it out there.
I don't care if I am surrounded by witches. I am okay with associating with them. I don't even care if I have to see their witchy ramblings. I just don't want to see ONLY witchy ramblings.
SecureSignals
Civilization is simply a geno-memetic-techno-capital machine
f3zinker 1yr ago
Looking through the past CW threads, I'm not seeing it - "ONLY witchy ramblings." This is basically the only space of this kind that doesn't ban critical discussion on Jews or the Holocaust, which are very important topics in the Culture War, so when it does come up it is probably bothersome to a certain type... but:
I personally REALLY don't care about this topic... That topic makes the motte worse for me.
Does not follow. There are some topics that come up here frequently that I REALLY don't care about, and I click the '-' button within the 0.5 seconds it takes me to realize I'm not interested in the thread. You should just say that it's a topic that you do care about, and it bothers you when people discuss it with a critical perspective. That would be a more honest complaint, and it would ring true for the vast majority of people.
Allowing those topics (though I personally have posted 0 top-level threads on Holocaust denial (so far)) will lower the status of the community in adjacent spaces like SSC. I get the impression the mods are more committed to the purpose of the community than they are status signaling to other rationalists (and I don't mind the token denunciations from the mods here in that thread).
Im coming off as more passionate than I am because of using Scotts phrasing. I dont think they are witches. I just think they are bores.
And if I used the minus sign last week, I would have just minused out half the CW thread.
I dont give a damn what anyone thinks of this community least of all /r/ssc, You will have to take my word for it, I just dont care for the topic. It doesnt bother me, it taking up oxygen towards topics I consider more pertinent bothers me. Its the opportunity cost.
SecureSignals
Civilization is simply a geno-memetic-techno-capital machine
f3zinker 1yr ago
And if I used the minus sign last week, I would have just minused out half the CW thread.
Again, I'm just not seeing it. What top-level threads from last week's CW thread are the witchy ramblings you are talking about? It seems well-rounded to me, with Christianity receiving more pointed criticism last week than Jews or the Holocaust.
I might be off, but there was some point in the recent past where there was a suffocating amount of jew posts, I will concede it might just be in my head.
Nonetheless my suggestion applies to any and all topics that suck out too much oxygen. It would have the added benefit to some people of rate limiting "witchy" topics. Even if that isnt the goal.
There was a relatively active holocaust revisionism thread recently, that was annoying if you view the site through the comments feed, because it contained these massive longposts you had to scroll through endlessly, but it's inaccurate to say it dominated the CW thread for the week.
It's easily fixable with my brilliant idea of the "mute thread" feature.
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Notes -
The solution to prevent the motte from becoming a "den of witches" whilst still preserving its founding ethos is... variability. The mottes generalist nature is a strength here.
The pertinent issue is that a certain group of people have an overwhelming axe to grind on a specific issue and there is just no way a neutral observer can even fight back because they did not spend a literal 1000 hours grinding whichever side of that axe. Resulting in evaporative cooling (People just don't like seeing things they disagree with over and over and over again, irrational yes, they can just ignore them, but they are still people).
However. Because the motte is generalist. A lot of discussions can concurrently take place on a lot of different topics. The axe grinders can grind their axe in the corner with their fellow enthusiasts and the others can have a discussion on something else entirely.
To prevent a specific topic from sucking out too much oxygen. The mods should probably.. limit the number of discussions on a specific topic if it starts getting unwieldy.
I'll drop my hot take here. If there are too many posts about the Jews or the Holocaust. The mods should just go "Alright, we have reached our Jew discussion quota for the next two days, time to move on to a new topic". I personally REALLY don't care about this topic, I don't care if it was 6 million or 600 or 600 septillion. That topic makes the motte worse for me.
The mods could also add a banner to a specific post such as "This is an Urban Planning post" or "This is a Holocaust skepticism post", allowing for people looking to grind their axes to find their fellow axe grinders. And there will be a limited number of banners allowed per day. Shitty idea, I know, but I am throwing it out there.
I don't care if I am surrounded by witches. I am okay with associating with them. I don't even care if I have to see their witchy ramblings. I just don't want to see ONLY witchy ramblings.
Looking through the past CW threads, I'm not seeing it - "ONLY witchy ramblings." This is basically the only space of this kind that doesn't ban critical discussion on Jews or the Holocaust, which are very important topics in the Culture War, so when it does come up it is probably bothersome to a certain type... but:
Does not follow. There are some topics that come up here frequently that I REALLY don't care about, and I click the '-' button within the 0.5 seconds it takes me to realize I'm not interested in the thread. You should just say that it's a topic that you do care about, and it bothers you when people discuss it with a critical perspective. That would be a more honest complaint, and it would ring true for the vast majority of people.
Allowing those topics (though I personally have posted 0 top-level threads on Holocaust denial (so far)) will lower the status of the community in adjacent spaces like SSC. I get the impression the mods are more committed to the purpose of the community than they are status signaling to other rationalists (and I don't mind the token denunciations from the mods here in that thread).
Im coming off as more passionate than I am because of using Scotts phrasing. I dont think they are witches. I just think they are bores.
And if I used the minus sign last week, I would have just minused out half the CW thread.
I dont give a damn what anyone thinks of this community least of all /r/ssc, You will have to take my word for it, I just dont care for the topic. It doesnt bother me, it taking up oxygen towards topics I consider more pertinent bothers me. Its the opportunity cost.
Again, I'm just not seeing it. What top-level threads from last week's CW thread are the witchy ramblings you are talking about? It seems well-rounded to me, with Christianity receiving more pointed criticism last week than Jews or the Holocaust.
I might be off, but there was some point in the recent past where there was a suffocating amount of jew posts, I will concede it might just be in my head.
Nonetheless my suggestion applies to any and all topics that suck out too much oxygen. It would have the added benefit to some people of rate limiting "witchy" topics. Even if that isnt the goal.
There was a relatively active holocaust revisionism thread recently, that was annoying if you view the site through the comments feed, because it contained these massive longposts you had to scroll through endlessly, but it's inaccurate to say it dominated the CW thread for the week.
It's easily fixable with my brilliant idea of the "mute thread" feature.
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