MrHen comments on Open Thread: April 2009 - Less Wrong

5 Post author: gjm 03 April 2009 01:57PM

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Comment author: ThoughtDancer 07 April 2009 05:26:30PM 4 points [-]

I just stopped myself from commenting on a thread because I was worried for my itty bitty karma score. I'm new, so my karma score is tiny. I'm new enough to know that I might not know all the relevant context, so I stopped myself in case what I was going to say was too obvious.

I wish that newbies could have a protected period from being downvoted to the pits of negative karma if the new person is clearly giving an honest effort. But at the same time, downvoting trolls makes very good sense. I realize it's not practical to separate out new people from potential trolls. So for now, I find that I am being very, very careful.

Nevertheless, do we want the new people to feel the need to be careful? (Yes, I know that other sites do this: I have a decent karma on slashdot. Is it what this site wants?)

Comment author: MrHen 07 April 2009 06:29:12PM 3 points [-]

I am new as well, and even under-versed in most of the common phrases. But I am starting to comment anyway because of the karma rating. My score does not mean much to me in terms of status, so I don't care if it drops to nothing. To me, it is a marker of how much of what I say is interesting to other people. It is feedback that allows me to improve. I cannot get that feedback unless I comment, so I comment.

Comment author: ThoughtDancer 07 April 2009 10:31:07PM 2 points [-]

Ah, but I have an ulterior motive. I'm here in part because I want to read discussions of a rationalist approach to rhetoric. And we can't create new posts until we hit 20 I believe.

But I'm really curious about how a rationalist group would approach rhetoric, so I want to get the discussion started. :-)

That's why I care about my karma score so much.

Comment author: MBlume 08 April 2009 07:58:31AM 0 points [-]

And we can't create new posts until we hit 20 I believe.

Well, I'll be looking forward to seeing your first post soon then =)

Comment author: ThoughtDancer 08 April 2009 08:50:12AM *  0 points [-]

Thanks for the confirmation, and yes, I appear to be at 20.

Now to start thinking about how to open up a discussion about rationalist approach to rhetoric.

:-)