[META] Introduction thread attitudes and discussions

FWIW I think that erring strongly on the side of keeping discussion friendly and welcoming is good not just for newcomers but for everyone - for one thing, it makes it easier for both you and the person you're addressing to let go of an error.

I only have my own impressions to talk about, and I only had one reply to my meager introduction. There was a minor criticism included, but the welcoming part of the reply left me with a possitive feeling about it. The criticism also made me feel a little more like I was part of a discussion. It was a bit more than just a "Hey, happy you're here".

Getting any reply at all encouraged me to post a few more comments (like this one). Though others may mind criticism more, or of course get more of it by mentioning more extreme views.

I would have felt unwelcome if I had received tons of argumentation in the intro thread when I signed it. But then again, these three particular introductions seem like bold invitations to argumentation. If I had come across these before X other commenters, I would have responded as well. in fact, I've already responded to another intro thread with an argument.

Is this only something that I can recognize because I'm somewhat familiar with how this community behaves? Can we find out from AspiringKnitter and/or Bakkot whether they expected or intended to bring these threads on?

Note that while I felt an extra objection to wedrifid's tone because it was to a newcomer, I would have felt at least mild disapproval even if it was to a regular. I don't think anyone - newcomers or regulars - should be shielded from criticism, but I do think that the tone for the criticism should be kept friendly.

A Suite of Pragmatic Considerations in Favor of Niceness seems relevant here.

At present, 150 of the 270 comments are children of Bakkot's comment, arguing about infanticide. It seems obvious to me that we ought to seriously discourage promoting discussion on ideas in introduction threads, and instead point people to open threads / a primer on writing discussion posts.

Another possible solution is to have new introduction treads on a more regular basis. Say, monthly, like quotes threads, or as they fill up, like MoR threads.

I'd be happy to conform to a "no extended discussion threads on welcome threads" convention. Presumably with such a convention in place we would have spawned a new discussion post to catch the spillover.

I'm not interested in being part of a unified policy on the content of introduction threads. That said, if broad agreement emerges on such a policy ought to exist, I'm willing to stay out of intro threads altogether rather than violate it.

If the tone is to be argumentative there should be a warning in the thread introduction.

So, we have three introduction threads, and recently have had several contentious ones, like AspiringKnitter's introduction as a theist or Bakkot's introduction as a proponent of infanticide.

If you come up with any policy that declares Bakkot's introduction should not provoke exactly the conversation is started then I will wholeheartedly oppose it. It has been the most interesting conversation here in weeks. What a few self selected people happen to notice (and care about) on some meta post in the discussion section most certainly shouldn't be enough to stop people engaging in that sort of free flowing conversation.

(Can we have a meta discussion about how to discourage meta discussion about controlling what conversations people have? Because I'd much rather go back to talking about killing babies.)

Upvoted for agreement. The infanticide discussion in particular is a bit absurd.

Take MagnetoHydroDynamics's introduction as not interested in cryonics as an example of a smaller discussion that spawned meta-discussions about attitudes.

Heh, good times.

Yes, I will admit I found myself somewhat alianated for all of twenty minutes. LW is generally pretty friendly, and I tend to take everythign with a grain of salt.

Good idea; I've edited the post on the welcome thread accordingly, and I'll try and ask people to start a Discussion post when this next happens.