uninverted comments on Rationality Quotes June 2013 - Less Wrong

3 Post author: Thomas 03 June 2013 03:08AM

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Comment author: [deleted] 03 June 2013 09:36:11PM *  13 points [-]

It’s hard to tell the difference between "Nobody ever complains about this car because it’s reliable" and “Nobody complains about this car because nobody buys this car."

-- Shamus Young

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 07 June 2013 11:33:38AM 8 points [-]

Thanks for the link.

Here's another good quote:

But if your solution to a problem is “don’t make mistakes”, then it’s not a solution. If you’re worried about falling off a cliff, the solution isn’t to walk along the edge very carefully, it’s to get away from the edge.

Comment author: [deleted] 15 June 2013 01:32:40PM 4 points [-]

If you’re worried about falling off a cliff, the solution isn’t to walk along the edge very carefully, it’s to get away from the edge.

It depends on why you were walking there in the first place.

Comment author: roystgnr 15 June 2013 11:52:27PM 0 points [-]

I think you were downvoted too hastily. Seriously, imagine that instead of driving very carefully last week, I phoned my destination to say "Sorry I'm going to miss your wedding, but the only route to the venue is next to a cliff!" Would "Great solution!" be an expected or an accurate response?

Comment author: [deleted] 16 June 2013 12:02:20AM 2 points [-]

I think you were downvoted too hastily.

I don't think a single downvote is that significant. I've seen so many inexplicable downvotes that I would suspect there's a bot that every time a new comment is posted generates a random number between 0 and 1 and downvotes the comment if the random number is less than 0.05 -- if I could see any reason why anyone would do that.

Comment author: wedrifid 16 June 2013 06:50:29AM 3 points [-]

I don't think a single downvote is that significant. I've seen so many inexplicable downvotes that I would suspect there's a bot that every time a new comment is posted generates a random number between 0 and 1 and downvotes the comment if the random number is less than 0.05 -- if I could see any reason why anyone would do that.

Now that you've suggested it...

Comment author: ialdabaoth 16 June 2013 07:29:25AM 0 points [-]

I don't think a single downvote is that significant. I've seen so many inexplicable downvotes that I would suspect there's a bot that every time a new comment is posted generates a random number between 0 and 1 and downvotes the comment if the random number is less than 0.05 -- if I could see any reason why anyone would do that.

It actually depends on how many total votes the post in question has accumulated, and how much karma the user in question has accumulated.

A completely new user doesn't need to have to worry about anomalous downvotes, because they're too new to have a reputation. Likewise, a well-established user doesn't need to worry about anomalous downvotes, because they get lost in the underflow. I'd say somewhere around the 200 mark it can become problematic to one's reputation; and, of course, one or two consecutive anomalous downvotes that act as the first votes on a given post can easily set a trend to bury that post before anyone has a chance to usefully comment on it.

Comment author: [deleted] 16 June 2013 07:34:43AM 1 point [-]

(If much more than 5% of the comments in a thread/by a user are downvoted, then it's probably not my hypothetical bot's fault.)

Comment author: [deleted] 23 June 2013 11:35:29AM 1 point [-]

(OTOH, depending on what kind of connection is there between you and the bride and groom and what kind of people they are, a half-joking “how the hell did you choose to get married here of all places” might have been in order.) :-)

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