Document comments on Open Thread: February 2010, part 2 - Less Wrong

10 Post author: CronoDAS 16 February 2010 08:29AM

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Comment author: Document 19 February 2010 08:26:47PM 3 points [-]

When I apply the statute, my justification is along the lines of "people usually only care about spoilers if they're watching a series or planning to watch it soon, which are unlikely given a random person and a random series". Hariant's comment could easily be interpreted as asking for recommendations of anime to watch, in which case "planning to watch (considering watching) it" would be a given.

Comment author: gwern 19 February 2010 09:27:38PM 2 points [-]

We cannot meaningfully discuss how DN & ilk hold lessons for LW without discussing plot events; funnily enough, spoilers tend to be about plots. And as I said, applying the principal of charity means not interpreting Hariant's comment that way.

Comment author: Document 20 February 2010 06:23:21PM *  0 points [-]

I had to look that up; Wikipedia says that "In philosophy and rhetoric, the principle of charity requires interpreting a speaker's statements to be rational and, in the case of any argument, considering its best, strongest possible interpretation.". I thought I was applying it by assuming that you hadn't considered that interpretation of the comment, rather than that you were ignoring it, so I'm not sure what you mean.

Also, I don't know what you mean by "as you said".

(Message edited once.)

Comment author: gwern 21 February 2010 10:12:11PM 0 points [-]

Which is more charitable: to interpret someone's comment as typical social fluff inappropriate for even the open threads, or to interpret it as an attempt to collate useful fictional examinations & introductions to LW-related material?