. — LessWrong

wedrifid15y140

If nobody even attempts such criticism, what follows is something that may superficially look like a "higher quality discussion," but is in fact a festival of applause lights and happy death spirals -- and on the whole even worse than a quarrel, in which it's at least clear that something's gone badly wrong. In my honest opinion, this is in fact what has been happening.

There was one case where a well meaning poster collated a conversation and posted it as "the lesswrong consensus" on online dating advice. That was... a less than ideal turn of events.

Kaj_Sotala15y00

Which one was that? (Vague recollection of having seen that, and maybe even commented, but can't recall the exact thread right now.)

18Vladimir_M15y

Yes, I think I know which thread you are talking about. It was one of my major disappointments here. That was, I think, the only time I saw a mass of LW participants approving and upvoting something that was an intellectual equivalent of healing crystals. (This is not a hyperbole -- I really think that the intellectual failure was of a similar magnitude, insofar as such things can be meaningfully compared.) A few people's attempts to bring some realistic perspective ended up creating a bitter controversy, and the crystal-healing-equivalent stuff was left with a respectable net positive vote.