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What is this place?
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court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to
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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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Notes -
I don't really buy this. You started the model at 100% participation, and at that level there are a lot of people who are undesirable to the community. I suppose this depends on what community you're talking about, but I'd say in general it's not the 'marginally introverted' who leave first, it's the 'marginally invested' or the 'socially marginal' whose loss is not as important. If I can get the weird guy who shows up but isn't friends with anyone to stay home on his phone, everyone wins.
The bigger issue with the model, I think, is that it doesn't factor in how social activity (and alone time) are limited nees. As in, for a person to be happy, they need a minimum amount of social activity (different per person) and then after that it's diminishing returns. Even if alone-fun approaches infinity it shouldn't override the social need. People don't have fun at social events because more people makes it more fun, they have fun because they are meeting a social interaction quota that can't be met otherwise.
Also, do you prefer comments here or on the blog itself?
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