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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   2381 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for June 9, 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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I have no reddit account, but if people are looking at alternatives, is it worth it for those of us who do to put up things directing them here?

With an accurate description, of course, since we would want people who fit.

Edit:Would the best place be a post in /r/RedditAlternatives, or one of the app-specific subreddits? We need to keep attracting users over time to make sure we don't gradually die, this seems like an unusually good opportunity.

I agree with the sibling - have you seen the quality of discourse on the average Reddit sub? We definitely don't want to be the next stop for the average Redditor. Growth is good, but we want a relative trickle of users who at least seem likely to be capable of obeying our rules, not a flood of people who want to post memes and cheap dunks.

I... mean... do we want to be reddit? Do we want more redditors?

You should probably post in places on reddit where people you want to join are present, not where everyone is, unless we want TheMotte to grow into a giant cluster of distinct interconnected interest groups that replaces Reddit.

TheMotte really isn't an alternative to reddit except for people exclusively using reddit for Motte adj subs.

Fair point, I meant with a fairly strong deterrent attached to whatever advertisement. (And we'd presumably have to stamp out fires here for a little anyway.)

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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.

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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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