Vaniver comments on Poll - Is endless September a threat to LW and what should be done? - Less Wrong

4 Post author: Epiphany 08 December 2012 11:42PM

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Comment author: Vaniver 09 December 2012 09:32:01PM 2 points [-]

I think that LW would be better with more good content. (Shocking!) I like plans that improve the amount of visible good content on LW, and am generally ambivalent towards plans that don't have that as an explicit goal.

My preferred explanation for why LW is less fun than it was before: Curiosity seeks to annihilate itself, and the low-hanging fruits have been picked. At one point, I was curious about what diet I should follow; I discovered intermittent fasting, tried it out, and it worked well for me. I am now far less curious about what diet I should follow. Similarly, LW may have gone through its rush of epiphanies, and now there is only slow, steady progress. The social value of LW (which is where Eternal September has its primary effects) is also moving towards meetups, which is probably better at fulfilling the social needs of meetup members but fractures the community and drains from the site.

Are there good topics out there that people haven't written posts on? I think so, and there are a few subjects that I know about and that I'm writing posts / sequences about. But they are little acorns, not big oaks. I believe that's necessary, but it will not look the same to readers.

Comment author: [deleted] 10 December 2012 03:11:11PM 3 points [-]

Good points, but a bucket of picked fruit does not make a pie.

We've generated a lot of really valuable insight on this site, but right now it has no structure to it.

Maybe it's time to move from an article-writing phase to a knowledge-organization phase.

Comment author: Epiphany 11 December 2012 02:53:57AM 1 point [-]

I had been thinking that, too. Some people had mentioned argument mapping software, however I have heard some really harsh criticisms of those. Not sure if that's the right way.

Maybe a karma-infused wiki (alluding to Luke's recent post).

Comment author: [deleted] 12 December 2012 04:20:41AM 1 point [-]

A textbook style overview/survey of LW rationality would be pretty awesome.