site banner
PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   2498 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 28, 2024

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.

3
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Huh, I just looked in the mod log, and saw that one user is still an admin, but has had all his/her comments removed.

No idea what that means. Does that mean that we're able to ask to have our comments mass purged, should we wish? I'm not a huge fan of removing content, as occasionally it's worth linking to or looking at old things, though its value goes way down after a week or something.

Edit: removed username of the person in question

Jesus, you scared me. Was about to ask the mods to get in touch with her and wish her well from me in whatever situation caused her to bail out from here.

She enabled private mode (you can do it in your profile settings), which means you cannot view her commenting / posting history, or search her comments by username, but the comments themselves are still there.

Mods will whack you for purging comments, but from what I understand private mode is allowed.

Unfortunately I don't think that's the case. The moderation log shows @ZorbaTHut removed all her content and now her username has been updated. I don't know what happened, but it seems like it is pretty serious. Hopefully she's okay.

Yeah, when I'd put that first, there was no private mode in place, and the name hadn't been updated.

I hope whatever's going on is nothing serious.

Oh damn...

I'm not a fan of purging history either, but if she went this far, it might be appropriate to ammend the username in your original comment as well.

I'm peeved at purging history, since it's already muddying the last month's quality contributions.

For a user as prolific as she was, I don't know who you expect to fool other than new, clueless people. For everyone else it's only a matter of time until they notice who it was, and an annoyance until they do, if they see this thread.

Good point.

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