Vladimir_Nesov comments on [Link] A superintelligent solution to the Fermi paradox - Less Wrong

-1 Post author: Will_Newsome 30 May 2012 08:08PM

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Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 31 May 2012 01:48:07AM 7 points [-]

Note that much of that is likely due to karmassassination, not legitimate downvoting.

Disagree. I approve downvoting of most of your comments that were downvoted to -2 or below, for reasons triggered by those particular comments. This makes it plausible that they were downvoted for similar reasons, rather than in a way insensitive to qualities of individual comments.

Comment author: Will_Newsome 31 May 2012 02:08:57AM *  1 point [-]

Right, but I also know that karmassassination has occurred at various points, and any karmassassination is likely to take up a disproportionate chunk of the downvotes. No?

Zack's statistic of -4 or below is the most pertinent. It's at 3.7%.

People will naturally wish to compare this with the percentage of my comments that are +4 or more. Zack tells us that this percentage is 19.2%.

So there's clearly a very large asymmetry. What one makes of it depends on a lot of other background stuff.

Comment author: Vladimir_Nesov 31 May 2012 02:33:56AM *  6 points [-]

I also know that karmassassination has occurred at various points, and any karmassassination is likely to take up a disproportionate chunk of the downvotes. No?

Not necessarily. Taboo "karmassassination", what were you actually observing? One scenario is that some comments you make draw attention and people look over the recent N of your posts, judge them individually, but it turns out that the judgment is mostly negative. Another is that people who want to discourage a certain type of comments downvote multiple already-downvoted posts without paying too much attention, expecting that downvotes that are already present carry sufficient evidence in the context. Both cases result in surges of negative votes which remain sensitive to qualities of individual comments.

People will naturally wish to compare this with the percentage of my comments that are +4 or more. Zack tells us that this percentage is 19.2%.

You're drifting from the topic, I'm not discussing a net perception of your participation, only explanations for the negatively judged contributions. Your writing them off as not-particularly-meaningful (effect of "karmassassination" rather than of comments' negative qualities) seems like a rationalization, given the observations above.

Comment author: Will_Newsome 31 May 2012 04:06:17AM 3 points [-]

Like, I'm not trying to avoid the knowledge that I often make contributions to LessWrong that aren't well-received. It happens, more for me than for others. I was just pointing out that I've also noticed strict karmassassination sometimes, not necessarily often in my 2190 most recent comments. It's just a thing to take into account. The karmassassination I have experience with is often not of the sort that you describe. But I'm perfectly willing to accept such explanations sometimes, and I've already noticed that they explain a few big chunks lost a few months back.

Comment author: Will_Newsome 31 May 2012 02:38:37AM *  1 point [-]

I don't write all of them off as meaningless, of course! Didn't mean to imply that. Some comments just aren't positive contributions to LessWrong. It happens, and it happpens to me more than others. I'm not denying that at all.