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NancyLebovitz comments on Rationality Quotes Thread August 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

6 Post author: bbleeker 03 August 2015 09:50AM

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Comment author: NancyLebovitz 28 August 2015 01:09:10PM 3 points [-]

And people who are that sensitive to their karma score are unlikely to be comfortable in LW anyway.

That seems to be factually mistaken.

You seem to be engaging in a typical mind fallacy, or some variant of it. If something doesn't bother you, no one else should be bothered by it.

Comment author: Lumifer 28 August 2015 02:25:48PM 1 point [-]

I am sure I'm not immune to the typical mind fallacy, but LW is known for not being particularly gentle with posts it disagrees with. It's pretty far away from a circle jerk. People who are uncomfortable with disapproval are likely to find it unpleasant, regardless of whether it is expressed as a downvote or as a contrary comment.

Note that I'm not arguing that LW should deliberately drive away the thin-skinned, that's certainly a bad idea. However I don't think that someone who is upset by a downvote is going to react well to a comment (or two, or many) telling him he's wrong.

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 28 August 2015 03:24:27PM *  6 points [-]

And people who are that sensitive to their karma score are unlikely to be comfortable in LW anyway.

The thing is, a downvote campaign isn't just a losing a point or two, it's more like losing 30 points for no apparent reason in a day. Or, as happened to me for a while, having a downvote appear just about as soon as I posted much of anything. I like LW pretty much, but that really did take away some of the sparkle for me.

A downvote carries much less information than a comment. It's possible to think about whether a comment is reasonable.