Attraction to isn't necessarily the same as likeliness of approval.

"Comment score below threshold/+60 children" is practically salacious. "20 points", less so.

I downvoted the comment in question without reading it beyond confirming that by keyword it is at least as insane as the other things he has said recently. He seems to have completely lost his grasp of reality to the extent that I am concerned for his mental health and would recommend seeking urgent medical attention.

So I don't necessarily agree that downvoting without reading is necessarily a bad thing. But Will certainly has strong evidence that it was occurring in this thread. I had noticed it before Will made the complaint himself.

Agreed. It's always that few seconds of utter despair that make me write stupid things. It's not long after the despair algorithm that the automatic "this isn't the should world, it's reality, any suffering you are experiencing is the result of samsaric delusion" algorithms kick in, at least for a little while.

I am surprised that people say they are more likely to read a comment voted to "20 points" than one voted to "Comment score below threshold/+60 children". Several people have claimed something like this when justifying upvoting the walloftext post or not downvoting the walloftext post. They expressed a desire for others to read it as justifying that despite disapproval of the contents or presentation.

I would have expected people to be more attracted to comments labeled "Comment score below threshold/+60 children" than "20 points" (or zero), and to also believe and say "I am more attracted to comments labeled 'Comment score below threshold/+60 children' than '20 points' (or zero)".

The divergence in intuition here feels similar to other instances in which people expressed a different opinion than mine in which I was surprised. For example, when a girl is and says she is offended by the suggestion of a certain activity for a date, when that activity as free, as it indicates my stinginess. In this case, I register the different way of thinking as genuine, and my anticipations, my map of the world, failed in two respects: my anticipation of her reaction to the free thing and her verbal response. It would certainly possible for someone to have a similar reaction as a feeling they can't quite verbalize, or alternatively, to not feel disapproval of me but say the words because it is the cached thing to say among people in her circles.

That is not a perfect example but I hope it suffices, my failures have almost always been two-level.

In this case, I actually think that people saying "I/people in general (as implicitly extrapolated from myself) am more likely to read a post voted -2 than "Comment score below threshold/+60 children" are wrong.

I, of course am wrong as well by my account, as I had not mapped their maps well at all. I had expected them to say that they behave in a certain way, and that that way is how they actually behave, and that that was is to seek the contentious, inciting, heavily commented downvotes. I am wrong at least insofar as so many seem to think they don't. Wrong wrong wrong.

That said, are they in fact correct when they predict how the LW majority chooses what to view? Note I am predicting that most people are extrapolating from their own behavior, I certainly am. It may be that individuals saying they think the majority of LW acts this way are thinking this by extrapolating from themselves, and they may or may not be right about themselves; I suspect many who say this of themselves are right and many who say this of themselves are wrong.