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Vaniver comments on Open Thread, May 18 - May 24, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

4 Post author: Gondolinian 18 May 2015 12:01AM

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Comment author: John_Maxwell_IV 18 May 2015 01:03:37PM *  11 points [-]

In my view, you're asking the wrong question. The major contributors are doing great; they have attracted their own audiences. A better question might be: how can LW grow promising new posters in to future major contributors (who may later migrate off the platform)?

I had some ideas that don't require changing the LW source that I'll now create polls for:

Should Less Wrong encourage readers to write appreciative private messages for posts that they like?

Should we add something to the FAQ about how having people tear your ideas apart is normal and expected behavior and not necessarily a sign that you're doing anything wrong?

Should we add something to the FAQ encouraging people to use smiley faces when they write critical comments? (Smiley faces take up very little space, so don't affect the signal-to-noise-ratio much, and help reinforce the idea that criticism is normal and expected. The FAQ could explain this.)

We could start testing these ideas informally ASAP, make a FAQ change if polls are bullish on the ideas, and then announce them more broadly in a Discussion post if they seem to be working well. To keep track of how the ideas seem to be working out, people could post their experiences with them in this subthread.

Submitting...

Comment author: Vaniver 18 May 2015 07:21:59PM 1 point [-]

Should we add something to the FAQ encouraging people to use smiley faces when they write critical comments?

Hmm. I typically see emoticons as tied to emotion, and am unsurprised to see that women use them more than men. While a LW that used emoticons well might be a warmer and more pleasant place, I'm worried about an uncanny valley.

Comment author: Jiro 18 May 2015 09:36:29PM 3 points [-]

Putting smiley faces on critical comments is likely to encourage putting smiley faces on anything that may be perceived as negative, which in turn will lead people to put smiley faces on actual hostility. Putting a smiley face on hostility just turns it into slightly more passive aggressive hostility (how dare you react to this as if it's hostile, see, I put a smiley face on) and should be discouraged.

I also worry that if we start putting smiley faces on critical comments, we'll get to the point where it's expected and someone whose comments are perceived as hostile will be told "it's your own fault--you should have put a smiley face on".

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