site banner
naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   4667 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 26, 2023

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.

1
Bottom New Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Adding to the interesting speculation here: might language barriers play a much larger role than we think? North Americans all have a common lingua franca, Asians do not, at least not to that extent. And that also includes Russians. There is no reason to emphasise team play if you can't coordinate because you can't communicate. But that doesn't account for MEs being relatively good team players, unless they are mostly Arab-speaking.

FYI as a ME resident, all communication is done in English because you rarely get teammates who all speak the same language outisde of NA and because callouts and common strategies are standardized, for e.g the infamous RUSH B that the Russians are so fond of is one of those strategies, everyone knows immediately what to do when "RUSH B" is uttered.

There isnt much strategizing when playing with randoms either. I used to be very very high ranked so my definition of strategizing is more strict than most gamers.

To be clear about League of Legends, the USA+Canada is one region(NA), and Korea is its own region because League has just really taken off there. So Korea probably actually has even more of a lingua franca than NA, since NA would be mostly english speakers but have a few spanish and a few french speakers, where as Korea is almost all Korean.

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.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats