NancyLebovitz comments on Rationality Quotes Thread August 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.
Comments (222)
No, I don't think so.
In the context of online debates, "actively trying to drive away" means things like threats, discussion of sexual inadequacies, and expressed desires for someone to die in a fire. That is not the case here.
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.
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.
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.