ChrisHibbert comments on Too much feedback can be a bad thing - Less Wrong

6 Post author: Kaj_Sotala 11 April 2009 02:05PM

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Comment author: ChrisHibbert 11 April 2009 04:48:13PM 0 points [-]

I'm voting this down for starting out with "Didn't have the time to read the article itself, but". If you can't take the time to read the article, then forward it to someone who might be interested so they can decide whether there's anything new in it. I don't think we want LW to be a place for exchanging pointers to articles with interesting abstracts.

Comment author: badger 11 April 2009 05:05:16PM 5 points [-]

I disagree. I think there is currently too much pressure to post original or thoroughly commented material. I don't expect something like this to be voted highly or promoted, but I think an abstract and the broad recommendation of a blog like BPS Research is worthwhile.

Comment author: Kaj_Sotala 11 April 2009 05:14:13PM 1 point [-]

Fair enough, but the content of the abstract itself already had content that was new to me. Actually, the abstract alone was useful for me, as it hadn't occurred to me that feedback might actually be harmful in such an environment. In retrospect it's obvious, but I hadn't happened to think about it.

I often scan through abstracts of scientific articles, only absorbing the information contained in them. Yes it would be better to read the whole articles, but there are too many interesting articles to read them all, and if I ever actually need to check up on the details, I can return to the article in question.

Comment author: PhilGoetz 11 April 2009 05:16:28PM *  0 points [-]

I agree. Don't make a post consisting soley of a link to something you haven't read.

Even if you've read them all, I don't think the "bag of links" approach fosters discussion. It would be better on Open Thread.

Comment author: Kaj_Sotala 11 April 2009 05:52:01PM 1 point [-]

Would it have been better to post them all individually? I considered that, but I wouldn't really have had very much insightful to comment that wouldn't already have been obvious from the articles themselves.

Comment author: thomblake 14 April 2009 03:43:30PM 1 point [-]

Would it have been better to post them all individually?

I think the correct answer is for you to post them as you did, and then be somewhat downvoted for it. "vote down" (for a post) doesn't mean "You're a bad person - I punish you!", it means "I think this is amongst the worst articles on this site". If we have excellent articles, you shouldn't feel too bad about a bunch of links having that distinction.

Comment author: ciphergoth 11 April 2009 06:24:33PM 0 points [-]

Let's err on the side of posting too many links to interesting looking peer reviewed research for now; we can start demanding stricter standards if it turns out to be a problem.

Comment author: PhilGoetz 12 April 2009 08:06:13PM 0 points [-]

I'm undecided on post links/don't post links. I'm firmly decided that you shouldn't post links to things you haven't read.