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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   2972 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for April 28, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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What is this site?

I think Zorba considered using their codebase for this migration -- but as I recall there were some technical concerns, and the drama people had the added feature of being less pissy.

Going back to my original spreadsheet - "the un-nameable community" was rDrama, Reddit doesn't like people talking about it - the big issue was a lack of real-world testing, a lack of moderation tools, and somewhat worse performance. There was a lot I liked about it too, but in the end we went with rDrama.

I think it worked out great in the end, although admittedly not for reasons I could have foreseen.

I haven't been on it myself, but it looks like it's another text-based reddit-style discussion site? They say they also want relatively higher quality discussion than found on reddit. https://blog.tildes.net/announcing-tildes

I found this yesterday by searching "themotte" on reddit, and there was a post a few days ago on pointing to that post on tildes.

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!

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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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