The LessWrong wiki contains a biased and offensive entry on group selection. I edited the wiki page, to append some points representing an opposing view at the end. Eliezer removed my points, leaving only a link at the end. He said he thought my points were wrong, but would not say which points he thought were wrong, or why he thought they were wrong.
Is it reasonable for me to restore my changes over Eliezer's edit, since he is unwilling to give reasons for his edit? What sort of rights or privileges does Eliezer have over LW or LW wiki content?
(Please try not to turn this into a discussion of group selection.)
ADDED: Please go meta, folks. I am not trying to argue about this specific Wiki article. I am not asking for redress. Specifics about this wiki article are irrelevant. I am asking whether this is still a benevolent dictatorship.
The relevant questions are not what the appropriate form of debate is, or anything about this wiki article. The relevant questions are:
- Who owns the domain?
- Who created the Wiki?
- Who owns the code?
- Who pays for the servers?
- If someone is in charge, what rights do they reserve for themselves?
- At what point does the ratio of community contributions to Eliezer's contributions mean we have the right to claim some ownership?
The Wiki main page says, "The wiki about rationality that anyone who is logged in can edit". Apparently that is a lie. If I do not have as much right as Eliezer does to write a wiki post, I want that point explicitly spelled out.
He can do whatever he likes. Editing out a relatively minor case of someone trying to make his point on a wiki page instead of the board is a comparatively trivial use of power - I mean, he didn't even yell, swear or threaten! In this instance I would not even consider it inappropriate for, say Vladimir_Nesov to revert your changes, given that he tends to be the wiki guy.
The wiki is not the place to try to sway public opinion. Sway public opinion with essays for main or well targeted discussion threads. Don't post the lesswrong equivalent of original research on the wiki.
I followed along on this exchange of edits on the wiki as they happened. If Eliezer hadn't intervened then I would have made a discussion post myself to bring it to the attention to Vladimir and the powers that be. Because while I don't disagree completely with everything you added to the wiki I do care strongly about keeping original research and conflict off the wiki. Fight it out here and leave the wiki out of it.
Why? As I asked in the title, Who owns LessWrong? For example: Who pays for the servers?
This is not me posting original research. The existing article is offensive in tone, commits several logical errors, and its main conclusion - that there is no selection for behaviors that benefit the group rather than the individual - is one that no evolutionary biologist today would agree with.