LW Account Restricted: OK for me, but not sure about LessWrong

post by amelia (314159) · 2023-04-12T19:45:17.042Z · LW · GW · 19 comments

Contents

  The “for approval” part concerns me a little. Does this mean any new user’s post will go through a moderator, and the moderator can decide to hide it from the rest of the LW audience, simply because they disagree with it? It seems this will stifle new ideas.
  The upvoting part also concerns me. I think some readers use the karma vote based on whether they agree or disagree with the writer (and not whether the writer’s point was unusual, unique or well-argued). We know that groundbreaking ideas are often initially unpopular or deemed as "radical," so I wo...
  I made 7 posts, including drafts, in 59 days. If you add in comments on my posts, others’ posts, and replies to comments, that brings us to 24. I’m thinking that, for the good of LW, you might want to have a consistent standard, and publicize it, because some newbies might not realize what is meant ...
  [EDIT, 20230412 21:48, All but one of my comments were regarding my own posts. Somehow I feel obligated to reply w/my own comments to most comments on my posts, even if it's just to say "Thanks for your feedback." 
  So if you don't count the comments on my own posts, then I've done 7 posts and 1 comment in 59 days. I can understand though if this is too much. You just might want to let future newbies know this.]
  I won’t say anything to this, other than that it seems problematic.
  Yeah, my comments received a net karma of +34, with 11 agree votes, and 1 disagree vote. However, my posts did receive a net -4 karma. 
  Generally, if I have an idea that I think everyone will agree with, or an idea that can be very easily argued, I don’t bother posting it--because such ideas don’t move the frontiers of philosophy forward. (I don’t really understand the point of posting something everyone already believes. How does t...
  Instead, I’ve tried to focus more on edge cases, unintuitive ideas, and unusual ideas, since those have not been covered as much or at all in some cases. I worry that if future newbies are subject to considering karma votes they will focus more on ideas everyone already believes, which doesn’t help ...
  As noted above, I’ve been way under the 1-per-day rate limit, so if future users are subjected to the same limit, it might not seem problematic at first. However, the problem I foresee is that comments tend to be conversational with other LW users. A person who is well under the 1-per-day rate limit...
  Because of this restriction, I’m moving all of my previous LW posts into draft mode, because the prospect of stretching any new conversations out over the course of weeks just sounds too painful. (I assume people can't comment on posts in draft mode, but if they can, I'm sorry that I won't be respon...
  [EDIT: 20230413, 10:53  Most of my LW posts are still available however, as I've been posting them to my new Medium blog, which I mentioned above.] 
  Also, obviously I won’t be able to reply to any comments on this post today, since I will have used up my one-per-day limit--so please don’t take my silence to imply rudeness, agreement, or disagreement. In fact, I probably won’t be using LW at all after this, but I wish you all the best.   
  This was really nice. Yes, I can imagine it’s overwhelming with all the new posts coming in. I agree that moderation of very frequent posts is needed. I just wonder if it would be useful to have a consistent frequency standard, while overlooking karma. 
None
19 comments

My LessWrong account has been restricted. [EDIT 20230413 11:49 - The restriction has been lifted. Thank you! ]

I’m alright with this. In fact, the restriction has turned out to be advantageous to me for the following reasons: 

1-It inspired me to finally set up a Medium account and express my views on that platform. 

[EDIT 20230413, 10:47 - I removed the link to the Medium account, because I have my writing sorted on my personal website (www.AmeliaJones.org https://www.AmeliaJones.org ) which then links to Medium.  The previous LW stuff would mostly be under writing....AI, or writing...physics. There is also some right-brain type writing linked to from the website that was never on LW. ]

2-On the Medium platform, all my writing can be in one place. This even includes my short stories and poetry. And when it comes to writing on philosophical physics, I don’t have to worry that physics-oriented platforms will reject the writing for being too philosophical, while LW might reject it for not being philosophical enough. The writing can just exist for whatever it is worth in its own right. 

3-The Medium platform will presumably have a larger and more diverse audience. 

4-There is some comic potential in having my account restricted. I printed out the message about the restriction, and have it displayed on my desk. I don't know exactly why it's amusing. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I thought my writing was a healthy part of the dialog, when in actuality it must have really been annoying some people.

 

Yet, while the restriction does not necessarily harm me personally, I do have some concerns for the future of LW. I’ll include these concerns in responses to the message about the restriction. The message is in italic. My thoughts are in bold.    

 

Hey amelia, 

We're generally tightening our moderation standards lately (see LW Team is adjusting moderation policy). This may feel like a significant shift in what the de-facto moderation standards. We're leaning towards the default expectation being more like new users can periodically submit comments or posts for approval, 

The “for approval” part concerns me a little. Does this mean any new user’s post will go through a moderator, and the moderator can decide to hide it from the rest of the LW audience, simply because they disagree with it? It seems this will stifle new ideas.

with gradually escalating privileges of how often they can comment that depends on being actively upvoted.

The upvoting part also concerns me. I think some readers use the karma vote based on whether they agree or disagree with the writer (and not whether the writer’s point was unusual, unique or well-argued). We know that groundbreaking ideas are often initially unpopular or deemed as "radical," so I worry that the need for popularity might limit the voicing of such ideas.

 

You've been posting fairly frequently, 

I made 7 posts, including drafts, in 59 days. If you add in comments on my posts, others’ posts, and replies to comments, that brings us to 24. I’m thinking that, for the good of LW, you might want to have a consistent standard, and publicize it, because some newbies might not realize what is meant by “frequent.”  

[EDIT, 20230412 21:48, All but one of my comments were regarding my own posts. Somehow I feel obligated to reply w/my own comments to most comments on my posts, even if it's just to say "Thanks for your feedback." 

So if you don't count the comments on my own posts, then I've done 7 posts and 1 comment in 59 days. I can understand though if this is too much. You just might want to let future newbies know this.]

 

and my subjective impression 

I won’t say anything to this, other than that it seems problematic.

as well as voting patterns suggest most people aren't finding your comments sufficiently helpful.

Yeah, my comments received a net karma of +34, with 11 agree votes, and 1 disagree vote. However, my posts did receive a net -4 karma. 

Generally, if I have an idea that I think everyone will agree with, or an idea that can be very easily argued, I don’t bother posting it--because such ideas don’t move the frontiers of philosophy forward. (I don’t really understand the point of posting something everyone already believes. How does that ever get us to a point of being “less wrong” tomorrow than we are today?) 

Instead, I’ve tried to focus more on edge cases, unintuitive ideas, and unusual ideas, since those have not been covered as much or at all in some cases. I worry that if future newbies are subject to considering karma votes they will focus more on ideas everyone already believes, which doesn’t help anybody.

 

For now I've given you a 1-per-day rate limit, and may evaluate as we think more about the new standards.

As noted above, I’ve been way under the 1-per-day rate limit, so if future users are subjected to the same limit, it might not seem problematic at first. However, the problem I foresee is that comments tend to be conversational with other LW users. A person who is well under the 1-per-day rate limit might still need to post 5 or 6 comments on a particular day, when engaged in a discussion. The issue is that, in these cases, the conversation will need to be stretched out by 5 or 6 days. Furthermore, new posts tend to get the most immediate discussion the day they are posted, so a new user who makes a new post will have to respond to comments at a rate of one response per day, even though 10 comments might come in right away. 

Because of this restriction, I’m moving all of my previous LW posts into draft mode, because the prospect of stretching any new conversations out over the course of weeks just sounds too painful. (I assume people can't comment on posts in draft mode, but if they can, I'm sorry that I won't be responding to them.)

[EDIT: 20230413, 10:53  Most of my LW posts are still available however, as I've been posting them to my new Medium blog, which I mentioned above.] 

Also, obviously I won’t be able to reply to any comments on this post today, since I will have used up my one-per-day limit--so please don’t take my silence to imply rudeness, agreement, or disagreement. In fact, I probably won’t be using LW at all after this, but I wish you all the best.   

(I see you asking for more feedback, which I think is super pretty reasonable thing to ask for but unfortunately I don't have enough bandwidth for. Sorry about that.)

This was really nice. Yes, I can imagine it’s overwhelming with all the new posts coming in. I agree that moderation of very frequent posts is needed. I just wonder if it would be useful to have a consistent frequency standard, while overlooking karma. 

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