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drethelin comments on Open thread, 21-27 April 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: Metus 21 April 2014 10:54AM

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Comment author: drethelin 30 April 2014 02:11:13PM 6 points [-]

THE WHOLE POINT OF DOWNVOTES IS TO HAVE LESS BAD STUFF AND MORE GOOD STUFF. This applies not just to making people leave but making people who stay post tbings of higher quality.

If you don't downvote "otherwise-okay" people when they say dumb shit, how are they supposed to learn. Downvote the comment, not the person .

Comment author: [deleted] 30 April 2014 03:47:43PM 2 points [-]

Er... That was my point.

Comment author: MugaSofer 03 July 2014 04:18:30PM *  0 points [-]

I think the point is that you shouldn't conclude "that you're confident you don't want this person in our community" just because "the argument is so moronic".

(Because there's too much noise with individual arguments to deduce a person's general competence.)

In other words, yes, downvote the comment - not the person.