I feel like I've posted some good stuff in the past month, but the bits that I think are coolest have pretty consistently gotten very negative karma.
I just read the rude post about rationalist discourse basics, and, while I can guess why my posts are receiving negative karma, that would involve a truly large amount of speculating about the insides of other people's heads, which is apparently discouraged. So I figured I would ask.
I will offer a bounty of $1000 for the answer I find most helpful, and a bounty of $100 for the next most helpful three answers. This will probably be paid out over Venmo, if that is a decision-relevant factor.
Note that I may comment on your answer asking for clarification.
Edit 11-30-2023 1:27 AM: I have selected the recipients of the bounties. The grand prize of $1000 goes to @Shankar Sivarajan . The three runner-up prizes of $100 go to @tslarm , @Joe Kwon , and @trevor . Please respond to my DM to arrange payment or select a worthy charity to receive your winnings.
Edit 11-30-2023 12:08 PM: I have paid out all four bounties. Please contact me in DM if there is any issue with any of the bounties.
I haven't seen this mentioned explicitly, so I will. Your tone is off relative to this community, in particular ways that signal legitimate complaints.
You do a good job of sounding humble in some places, but your most-downvoted "ethicophysics I" sounds pretty hubristic. It seems to claim that you have a scientifically sound and complete explanation for religion and for history. Those are huge claims, and they're mentioned with no hint of epistemic modesty (recognizing that you're not sure you're right).
This community is really big on epistemic modesty, and I think there's a good reason. It's easier to have productive discussions when everyone doesn't just assume they're sure they're right, and assume the problem must be that others don't recognize their infallible logic and evidence.
The other big problem with the tone and content of that post is that it doesn't mention a single previous bit of work or thought, nor does it use terminology beyond "alignment" indicating that you have read others' theories before writing about your own. I think this is also a legitimate cultural expectation. Everyone has limited reading time, so rereading the same ideas stated in different terms is a bad idea. If you haven't read the previous literature, you're probably restating existing ideas, and you can't help the reader know where your ideas are new.
I actually upvoted that post because it's succinct and actually addresses the alignment problem. But I think tone is a big reason people downvote, even if they don't consciously recognize why they disliked something.
We've been in touch, and agreed that MatHatter will make the donation by end of February. I'll post a final update in this thread when I get the confirmation from GiveWell.