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PaperclipPerfector  8d ago (text post)   24858 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of November 10, 2025

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The Motte’s Declining Audience

Several times this month I have tried to load the site and it’s been very slow, looked weird (with a kind of almost rdrama pink theme and unusual spacing) or failed to load at all.

I’d guess that this is a big reason why, after 5+ years of relative stability, the last few months have seen a huge drop off in culture war thread comments. Posting here for visibility, but this seems like something we should fix or this place is going to die pretty quickly.

Is there a repo with tickets that we're tracking ?

I am happy to volunteer 8 hours (1 weekend day) of my time for fixes. I should be able to find 1 day the week after thanksgiving. Could pick up a couple of tickets and make some progress on them if no-one is looking at them.

I mostly do ml/backend work, but have done a little bit of front end too. If it is just profiling and debug cycles, it should be straight forward.

There is a wider question here: discoverability. Some friends have inquired if a space like the theMotte exists. I usually shurg and pretend this place doesn't exist. My policy has been that if you are meant to find it, you will find it. But, after our divorce from Reddit, I'm not so sure anymore.

Please do recommend this place to other people. We’re small enough that we really need the exposure. If they come here and then they don’t like it or can’t follow the rules then you can say well, guess it wasn’t meant to be.

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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