[Link] Skeptics Stack Exchange

5 Post author: Wilka 04 May 2011 12:53PM

http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/

"Beta Q&A site for skeptics, rationalists, free thinkers, or anyone who questions woo and pseudoscience. Skeptics is aimed at applied skepticism -- researching specific areas of woo or pseudoscience. It is not for philosophical discussions about skepticism."

It seems like it might of interest to folks here.

For those that don't know, the Stack Exchange sites use a pretty successful Q&A format and (at least the sites I use so far) have a high signal-to-noise ratio. More info on how the Q&A system works is here.

Comments (10)

Comment author: ciphergoth 04 May 2011 01:16:04PM *  15 points [-]

I'm incredibly tempted to go in and ask "is it a good idea to sign up for cryonics?" just to see the ratio of discriminating vs undiscriminating skeptics, but I'm too easily Googleable wrt my position on the subject :-) No discussion of cryonics there at all so far AFAICT.

Edit: Done. Edit: and immediately closed. Anyone else want to try?

Comment author: Normal_Anomaly 04 May 2011 07:38:12PM *  8 points [-]

I tried it. Edit: looks like a couple of non-LW people have made thoughtful comments, one positive and one fairly neutral.

Comment author: ciphergoth 05 May 2011 09:14:44AM 1 point [-]

Thanks - look like you did better than me, nice work!

Comment author: Wilka 04 May 2011 08:15:22PM 1 point [-]

I've had a go at quick answer to maybe get a bit of discussion started (well, more detailed answers that aren't quite as poor).

Comment author: jhuffman 08 November 2011 09:35:44PM *  0 points [-]

Well I find it funny that today, the highest voted answer is a reference to Hanson's article on OB. Sort of feels like we got cheated. Or that there are no internet people interested in cryonics who don't already know about LW and OB.

Comment author: jsalvatier 04 May 2011 02:15:40PM 3 points [-]

Then do it by saying 'I have my own opinion, but I'm curious what people here think.'

Comment author: Wilka 04 May 2011 08:17:43PM *  2 points [-]

Phrasing it like that is likely to get closed as well, the Stack Exchange sites are strongly focused on Q&A, not discussions, so to avoid the question being closed you usually need to ask something that can have a 'correct' answer.

Comment author: David_Gerard 04 May 2011 03:14:44PM *  2 points [-]

Do it, it'll be interesting to watch :-)

I enjoy skeptics.stackexchange a bit, but only for occasional passing entertainment. It's an occasionally enjoyable exercise in on-the-spot refutation of great silliness. If that isn't your bag then you probably won't enjoy it much.

I don't actually see much crossover with LW at all.

Comment author: Cyan 04 May 2011 03:53:39PM 0 points [-]

Well that was disappointing.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 04 May 2011 01:56:50PM *  5 points [-]

applied skepticism -- researching specific areas of woo or pseudoscience

What a horrible occupation. :-)