shminux comments on Polyhacking - Less Wrong

75 Post author: Alicorn 28 August 2011 08:35AM

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Comment author: shminux 08 June 2012 07:26:28PM *  7 points [-]

People get hurt in all kinds of relationships, because entering in a relationship generally means that you open yourself up to being hurt if things go wrong.

In any case, regardless of the type of relationship, the golden rule is the campsite rule, suitably generalized to all relationships: strive to leave your partner(s) in a better shape than you found them.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 08 June 2012 07:52:34PM 2 points [-]

I would replace "my partner" with "everyone involved," but other than that, completely agreed.

Comment author: shminux 08 June 2012 08:30:06PM *  0 points [-]

Fixed to include plural, thanks!

Comment author: wedrifid 08 June 2012 08:44:12PM 0 points [-]

In any case, regardless of the type of relationship, the golden rule is the campsite rule, suitably generalized to all relationships: strive to leave your partner(s) in a better shape than you found them.

ie. You should dump them as quickly as possible - while there is still a chance that the amazing sex offset the deterioration from aging. (You can stay with them a bit longer if you encourage them to exercize more, eat better and you give them a supply of tretinoin.)

Comment author: pnrjulius 08 June 2012 11:13:09PM -1 points [-]

Sarcastic, but I think it can be made into a fair point: You're not always in control of whether someone gets better off or worse off, and is it fair to expect you to be?

Comment author: wedrifid 08 June 2012 11:54:03PM -1 points [-]

Sarcastic

No, ironic, facetious or merely silly. Sarcasm is different.

Comment author: pnrjulius 08 June 2012 11:10:35PM 0 points [-]

It's not a bad rule, but it has a couple of serious shortcomings.

First, how do you know? You don't see them afterward, almost by definition. Second, if you do make someone worse off, how do you distinguish a permissible accidental harm from impermissible negligence? Third, is this enough? It seems at least plausible that you can exploit someone even while leaving them better off. See "Wrongful Benificence" by Chris Meyers.

Comment author: Alicorn 08 June 2012 11:37:53PM 0 points [-]

I'd really prefer it if people had a policy of warning for PDFs. I have much different thresholds for wanting to click those than other links.

Comment author: kpreid 14 June 2012 08:23:14PM 1 point [-]

This problem is partially amenable to a technical solution. By whatever means your browser provides, add this CSS stylesheet:

a[href$=".pdf"]:after, a[type^="application/pdf"]:after { content: " [PDF]"; }

This will not, however, mark links which go to PDFs but have no extension or type hint, but in my experience nearly all PDF URLs have an extension.

Comment author: Alicorn 14 June 2012 08:24:25PM 1 point [-]

I don't know how to make a CSS addition in my browser itself.

Comment author: kpreid 14 June 2012 08:50:08PM 1 point [-]

Well, this was annoyingly hard to find the complete answer to. (I've only done it for Safari.)

  • In Safari, create the style sheet file anywhere then select it from Preferences → Advanced → Style sheet.
  • In Firefox, place a file at chrome/userContent.css in your Firefox profile directory; there will be an example file called userContent-example.css there.
  • In Google Chrome, edit User StyleSheets/Custom.css in your Google Chrome profile directory.

Locating the profile directory depends on your operating system as well as browser; instructions for this are much easier to find but if you specify your OS I'll look it up for you.

Comment author: Alicorn 14 June 2012 09:08:18PM 0 points [-]

OSX 10.7. And I don't know where to find my Firefox profile directory.

Comment author: kpreid 14 June 2012 09:18:14PM *  1 point [-]
/Users/<you>/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/<gobbledegook>.default

Note that on 10.7 and later the Library folder is hidden; the easiest way to work around this is to use Go to Folder… (Command-Shift-G) in the Finder and then type/paste a pathname such as

~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/

(Do I need to mention that all of this is far messier that, speaking as a designer of software, I approve of, even for a rarely-needed feature?)

Comment author: Alicorn 14 June 2012 09:23:58PM 0 points [-]

I have now done all this (I used the terminal to get there) and added the CSS line but it didn't do anything, PDFs still download without warning when clicked.

Comment author: kpreid 14 June 2012 09:34:51PM *  0 points [-]

The expected result is that PDF links have " [PDF]" at the end of their text, i.e. a warning of the sort someone writing a comment could have inserted. I tested it on the link in the comment you originally replied to.

Troubleshooting items: Have you restarted your browser? Did you save the CSS as plain text, not RTF or other word-processor format? What is the full pathname to where you placed the CSS file?

Comment author: Strange7 08 June 2012 08:12:44PM 0 points [-]

That I, personally, agree with you seems less significant than that this is the first comment I've seen upvoted to +4 while it was still one of the five most recent comments.

Comment author: pnrjulius 08 June 2012 11:12:23PM -1 points [-]

I also note how while karma is supposed to mean "constructive", it usually actually means "agree". People don't just downvote trolls, they seem to downvote anyone they disagree with.

I can tell, because usually I get upvoted... but all my posts criticizing polyamory have negative scores. I didn't turn into a troll overnight.

Comment author: wedrifid 09 June 2012 06:48:21AM 5 points [-]

I can tell, because usually I get upvoted... but all my posts criticizing polyamory have negative scores. I didn't turn into a troll overnight.

It is possible that your thinking and communicating on that subject really has sucked compared to other things that you have said.

Comment author: Nornagest 09 June 2012 06:59:09AM *  2 points [-]

To generalize that, I've found in the past that posts on subjects I feel very strongly about, or that I might reasonably expect interested observers to feel very strongly about, tend to be noticeably less well received unless I put a lot of effort into cooling my phrasing and shoring up any weak points in the reasoning. This might have a little to do with inferential gaps, but it's probably driven mostly by halo effects and their negative-affect cognates: arguments that I've accepted as part of my worldview are likely to look a lot less good to people that haven't internalized them. Same goes for rhetoric, but moreso.

Some people seem to be able to avoid this, but I don't seem to have the entertaining rant patch installed. If you find your posts on these subjects being downvoted a lot, chances are you don't either.

Comment author: pnrjulius 11 June 2012 01:27:23AM 0 points [-]

That makes some sense to me. Polyamory is exceptional because a number of prominent folks on Less Wrong identify as themselves poly, so they're bound to take it personally. And maybe I take it too personally myself, having been burned by a few attempts at poly relationships that went badly.

If so, then we would all be expected to be making worse arguments than usual, and you can get caught in a death spiral of both sides taking it too personally.

Comment author: Strange7 09 June 2012 01:39:57AM 0 points [-]

Personally I have never upvoted or downvoted any post on lesswrong, ever. Politics is only mindkilling to those who have chips in the game.