Although I always love a good quote from Black Belt Bayesian (a/k/a steven0461 a/k/a my husband), I think he’s on board with my interpretation of multifoliaterose’s posts. (At least, he’d better be!)

Going on to the substance, it doesn’t seem that multifoliaterose is just playing devil’s advocate here rather than arguing his actual beliefs – indeed everything he’s written suggests that he’s doing the latter. Beyond that, there may be a place for devil’s advocacy (so long as it doesn’t cross the line into mere trolling, which multifoliaterose’s posts certainly do not) at LW. But I think that most aspiring rationalists (myself included) should still try to evaluate evidence for and against some position, and only tread into devil’s advocacy with extreme caution, since it is a form of argument where it is all too easy to lose sight of the ultimate goal of weighing the available evidence accurately.

If multifoliaterose took the position of a advocatus diaboli, what would be wrong with that?

Multi has already refuted the opponent's arguments, well at least Eliezer more or less refuted them for him. Now it is time to do just what Black Belt Bayesian suggested and try to fix the SIAI's arguments for them. Because advocacy - including devil's advocacy - is mostly bullshit.

Remind SIAI of what they are clearly doing right and also just what a good presentation of their strengths would look like - who knows, maybe it'll spur them on and achieve in some measure just the kind of changes you desire!