Perplexed comments on Narrow your answer space - Less Wrong

25 Post author: Vaniver 28 December 2010 11:38AM

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Comment author: ata 04 January 2011 02:33:32AM *  2 points [-]

It would be nice if we had something like the player-killer bit (on multiplayer games, something you can set that means your character can kill other players and can be killed by other players), that meant "I can handle criticism", and that would show up next to your name on every comment you posted.

I'd support that. I think I once suggested something similar, adding a Crocker's Rules bit. What I'm wondering, though, is what levels of politeness would then become expected toward people who choose not to set the "I can handle criticism"/Crocker's Rules bit. Right now, any such norms are informal and implicit, to the extent that they exist at all, but if we added an option allowing people to explicitly accept bluntness, it seems like we'd need to clarify what the norm should be for people who don't enable that option: whether not setting that bit should be taken as "please do not be blunt to this person", or "please be polite to this person unless it's seriously impeding communication", or "just use normal social discretion, if you have any", etc.

Comment author: Perplexed 04 January 2011 03:42:13AM 1 point [-]

I'm uncomfortable with trying to characterize myself with just a single bit. Instead, I see it as more of a spectrum. Two spectra, in fact. One for ability to 'dish it out', one for willingness to 'take it'.

It would be nice to have an online test allowing everyone here to determine their score(s) - to find out once and for all if they suffer from an ASD (asshole spectrum disorder).

Comment author: TheOtherDave 04 January 2011 09:40:06PM 0 points [-]

Do you mean to suggest that you'd like to see users' "dish it out" capabilities indicated in a user profile? If so, what do you anticipate people doing with that information?

If not, that's fine, I was just confused by the context of the comment you were replying to.

Comment author: Perplexed 05 January 2011 12:09:30AM 0 points [-]

Well, if someone criticizes me, I can check their "dish" rating so as to judge whether to take the criticism personally.

Of course, even more useful than a Crocker rating or a "dish" rating would be an irony rating - so that readers could tell whether or not a comment was meant to be taken seriously.