Wei_Dai comments on Agree, Retort, or Ignore? A Post From the Future - Less Wrong

35 Post author: Wei_Dai 24 November 2009 10:29PM

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Comment author: Wei_Dai 26 November 2009 07:28:38PM 6 points [-]

One of Robin's comments made me think about what some of the possible hidden costs of my proposal are. Some have already been mentioned by others, so I'll just collect them here:

  • drive potential users away from the site, because they're not comfortable with the new norm
  • cause people to waste time inventing excuses so they can "legitimately" ignore an argument
  • cause people to prolong debates beyond what is productive, in order to not be seen as ignoring arguments

Are there any others that I've missed?

Comment author: Wei_Dai 28 November 2009 01:12:10AM 2 points [-]

So, some ideas to minimize the costs:

  • make the norm "opt-in", and allow a user to indicate a commitment to it by setting a user preference
  • make "I disagree, but no longer wish to continue this conversation" a socially acceptable response. As Nesov pointed out, this unavoidably sends the signal that you don't respect your interlocutor enough to give a proper response, but it also signals that you respect the audience enough to not play the "plausible deniability" game. We as audience should try to make it worthwhile to send this signal.

Again, any other costs, and/or ideas to minimize them?

Comment author: SilasBarta 28 November 2009 07:12:11AM 1 point [-]

One suggestion: A lot of the downsides would be avoided if this norm were reserved for issues that come up a lot with one or more people. Since it gets repeated, it's not a time drain to settle it once and for all.

Comment author: wedrifid 28 November 2009 02:33:32AM 1 point [-]

Again, any other costs, and/or ideas to minimize them?

Leaving off 'but no longer wish to continue this conversation' sounds less disrespectful without losing any information content.

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