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CannibalSmith comments on Open Thread: October 2009 - Less Wrong
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This post tests how much exposure comments to open threads posted "late" get. If you are reading this then please either comment or upvote. Please don't do both and don't downvote. When the next open thread comes, I'll post another test comment as soon as possible with the same instructions. Then I'll compare the scores.
If the difference is insignificant, a LW forum is not warranted, and open threads are entirely sufficient.
PS: If you don't see a test comment in the next open thread (e.g. I've gone missing), please do post one in my stead. Thank you.
Edit: Remember that if you don't think I deserve the karma, but still don't want to comment, you can upvote this comment and downvote any one or more of my other comments.
I not only read it, I spotted a typo. I am the most awesome person ever.
I don't think this is true. One reason to want a forum is to maximize the total views of more narrowly focused posts. If I post a comment in an open thread and it is only of interest to a handful of people on here they might never see it. But if I post in a forum where the post is on the page longer and in a place on the forum indexed such that people with my interests can find it there is a greater likelihood that someone will respond. The proper comparison is between the views a forum post gets and the views an open thread comment gets- not between two open thread comments at different times of the month. Plus some people would like a space where they can post less complete ideas without worrying about getting hit with downvotes.
The way to decide this issue is really simple. Start a forum and see what happens.
(Edit: Also, this is my notice that I read the comment)
One reason against a forum that I can think of is that we'd rather we not say low quality things at all. Maybe we want to force us to put our karma on the line at all times. Maybe we want to deny all opportunity for chatting. Enforce high standards. Discipline ourselves.
I am replying to this because I saw Nick Tarleton's comment in the recent comments panel, which Nick made because he saw ThomBlake's comment.
Of course, that sort of thing can in fact happen to a normal open thread comment, so it may still be a reasonable test.
I saw thomblake's comment, not this one.
It seems to me that forums provide a better experience for very long-running threads (though such discussions would often warrant top-level posts) (being able to re-root a comment thread under a new post would be a nice feature), and better indexing (ditto both parentheticals).
(FWIW, I tried to establish an unofficial forum for OB in 2008; a maximum of about five people ever used it.)
I'm reluctant to upvote you for making this test without a karma-equalizing mechanism in place. At the same time, I don't want to mess up your test by failing to reply at all when I did see this comment. So I'm writing this. I feel a little like my good nature has been abused.
Downvote one or more random comments of mine to balance things out.
I read the comments feed (and am annoyed that it regularly overflows the only-20-comments limit between checks).
There is a "Next" button. Also, this counts as my comment.
There is no "Next" button on the comments feed; while there is IIRC a RFC for a formalized "Next page" function, it is not widely implemented.
I'm commenting only because I saw the comment in the sidebar and wondered who would be posting to a nigh-dead open thread.
I wonder if anyone else is reading this...
You should probably make an explicit karma balance post for this.
Wow, there are a lot of people watching the "Recent Comments".
I saw the above quoted request (today, two weeks after it was made) because I saw RobinZ's reply to it (which was made today) at lesswrong.com/comments, got curious about the context of RobinZ's comment, then clicked on its "Parent" link.
Parenthetically, I do not like the idea of running part of this community on "web forum" software (e.g., phpBB) and will not participate unless I have to participate to continue to be part of the community.
i just crossed rhollerith's comment.
I read this comment. You may like to note that it was the first comment I saw (I always have my sort set to "Top") and it was quoted in the Google result for this thread, so I couldn't help but do so.
Check
I saw this comment show up in the Recent Comments bar.
Ack.
I do check 'recent comments'. Is this supposed to be creating a feedback loop?
We could see this as the upper bound on comments posted to an old open thread; it's possible that a comment be posted that is really good and invites comment, so logically you'd need to take into account the feedback loop it might cause (if you want to make any generalization about open threads).
I noticed Vlad's comment in the recent comments sidebar, and was curious. Make of that what you will.
Saw it, only because I happened to look at recent comments at the time.
Or I could ignore this, for obscurity of purpose.