I really don't think that's the problem here.
You had a good point, you made it, and you pointed out the problems with the responses to it. All of these comments were upvoted, many to double digits. But then your comments turned into personal attacks on Luke (suggesting he doesn't understand the material he posts, suggesting he is lying about not seeing an earlier comment of yours). At that point, I felt (as, I'm guessing, did others), that your comments were actively counterproductive in trying to learn more about the minicamp, as well as promoting a community norm of insulting each other and assuming bad faith.
I also tend to get annoyed by, and downvote, comments to the effect of "The fact that I was downvoted reflects badly on all of you, who obviously downvoted me for [reason]" since I usually didn't downvote for the reason mentioned and I don't see them as a sincere attempt to understand the source of disagreement.
as well as promoting a community norm of insulting each other and assuming bad faith.
(The community norm should be to assume bad faith as much as is suggested by evidence. The extent to which bad faith is assumed shouldn't be a product of a community norm. Insulting is rarely useful, of course.)
Singularity Institute desperately needs someone who is not me who can write cognitive-science-based material. Someone smart, energetic, able to speak to popular audiences, and with an excellent command of the science. If you’ve been reading Less Wrong for the last few months, you probably just thought the same thing I did: “SIAI should hire Lukeprog!” To support Luke Muelhauser becoming a full-time Singularity Institute employee, please donate and mention Luke (e.g. “Yay for Luke!”) in the check memo or the comment field of your donation - or if you donate by a method that doesn’t allow you to leave a comment, tell Louie Helm (louie@intelligence.org) your donation was to help fund Luke.
Note that the Summer Challenge that doubles all donations will run until August 31st. (We're currently at $31,000 of $125,000.)
During his stint as a Singularity Institute Visiting Fellow, Luke has already:
As a full-time Singularity Institute employee, Luke could:
If you’d like to help us fund Luke Muehlhauser to do all that and probably more, please donate now and include the word “Luke” in the comment field. And if you donate before August 31st, your donation will be doubled as part of the 2011 Summer Singularity Challenge.