My point is that reader_utility is more or less the same when the story is posted here, as it would be if it was posted in the Open Thread and Media Thread, but that nonreader_utility would be significantly better if it was posted there rather than here.
Anyway, I'll turn your question right back at you: what do you think you are adding, exactly, by griping in the comments? Why not just downvote?
I periodically make this sort of comment on inappropriate posts, hoping that the posters will realize that yes, they can post this type of thing in the OT/Media Thread/etc from now on, even if they previously didn't knew of their existence / didn't care. A downvote doesn't do any of that - here it will look like I'm downvoting the story itself.
At any rate, if a semi-official consensus is reached, which states that Discussion should be like a normal subreddit, where simple link posts, re-posts, etc. are allowed, then I'll stop downvoting.
My point is that reader_utility is more or less the same when the story is posted here, as it would be if it was posted in the Open Thread and Media Thread, but that nonreader_utility would be significantly better if it was posted there rather than here.
I don't follow. A viewer is a viewer whether they are viewing from an open thread or discussion. Posting in Open Thread vs Discussion only has the effect of scaling viewer numbers (in this model, num_nonreaders & num_readers) up or down. And I would expect that the num_nonreaders to num_readers ra...
Daniel Keyes, the author of the short story Flowers for Algernon, and a novel of the same title that is its expanded version, died three days ago.
Keyes wrote many other books in the last half-century, but none achieved nearly as much prominence as the original short story (published in 1959) or the novel (came out in 1966).
It's probable that many or even most regulars here at Less Wrong read Flowers for Algernon: it's a very famous SF story, it's about enhanced intelligence, and it's been a middle/high school literature class staple in the US. But most != all, and past experience showed me that assumptions of cultural affinity are very frequently wrong. So in case you haven't read the story, I'd like to invite you explicitly to do so. It's rather short, and available at this link:
Flowers for Algernon
(I was surprised to find out that the original story is not available on Amazon. The expanded novelization is. If you wonder which version is better to read, I have no advice to offer)
(I will edit this post in a week or so to remove the link to the story and this remark)