Comment author: Capla 30 June 2015 11:21:42PM 2 points [-]

I am curious to what extent the info in this post is common knowledge. Are these things familiar to people?

Comment author: Gondolinian 01 July 2015 02:44:18AM *  3 points [-]

I knew about melatonin and red/blue light from reading people in this community. I also had a vague understanding that circadian rhythms controlled falling asleep and were based on light, but I don't think I'd seen things spelled out as clearly as they are here. Thank you for putting this together and I do look forward to the rest of your series.

Comment author: Capla 30 June 2015 10:12:07PM 5 points [-]

Better?

Comment author: Gondolinian 01 July 2015 02:38:36AM 2 points [-]

Didn't see the original, but it looks good now.

Comment author: Alex_Miller 15 June 2015 07:10:52PM *  13 points [-]

My 4th grade teacher is teaching my class how to write poetry, and this is one of the poems that I wrote:

Where am I?
What is this place?
Is it the darkness of night?
I heard screams
and then I was here
Here, as in nowhere

This place was not nothing
it was less than that.
I didn’t see nothing,
for I had nothing to see with
I didn’t hear nothing,
for I had nothing to hear with

I didn’t feel nothing,
for I had nothing to feel with.
I had slept before, but nothing like this

Was Grandma here?
Did she meet this fate too?
I couldn’t know, for
I had nothing to know with
Even if she was here,
she did not exist for me

They said I would go to the land of the clouds
they said nothing of this place
Even the eternal flame would be better than this
for there they had warmth
and I had less than cold

Why would
anyone
want this fate?
The final sight,
and then less than nothing

I want to see the world

Comment author: Gondolinian 15 June 2015 08:06:13PM *  6 points [-]

(The line spacing got all wacko, sorry about that)

That prompted me to look up how to make line breaks in Markdown syntax, which I'd been wondering about myself for a while.

Try typing two or more spaces and then hitting enter
whenever you want a new line.

Comment author: Elo 15 June 2015 04:27:47AM 0 points [-]

click the "poll help" in "show help" guide is there I think.

http://wiki.lesswrong.com/wiki/Comment_formatting#Polls

Comment author: Gondolinian 15 June 2015 10:50:03AM *  0 points [-]

Thanks for responding. Unfortunately I think that guide only works for comments? Or at least, it only works for Markdown syntax. Do you know of any way to put Markdown syntax in a Main or Discussion post?

Comment author: Evan_Gaensbauer 09 June 2015 01:42:14AM 2 points [-]

I have already thought of doing this, and want to do it. I've been neglecting this goal, and I've got lots of other priorities on my plate right now, so I'm not likely to do it alone soon (i.e., by the end of June). If you want me to help you, I will. I may have an "ugh field" around starting this project. Suggestions for undoing any trivial inconveniences therein you perceive are welcomed.

Comment author: Gondolinian 12 June 2015 10:07:55PM -1 points [-]

Sorry for the late reply, and thanks for the offer! Unfortunately I wasn't actually talking about doing it myself, just putting it out there as an idea. Good luck though; it sounds like a valuable thing for the rationality community to have.

Comment author: Gondolinian 12 June 2015 08:25:29PM *  0 points [-]

Improbable idea for surviving heat death: computers made from time crystals. (h/t Nostalgebraist and Scott)

Comment author: Gondolinian 10 June 2015 02:18:06PM *  1 point [-]

Ideas from recent discussion regarding changes to the karma system and/or addition of new sections:

[in progress]

Make downvotes cost some of the downvoter's karma. (h/t RichardKennaway and Houshalter)

Only allow users with a certain amount of karma to downvote. (The actual amount can be worked out later.) (h/t ete and Houshalter)

Create a new and separate from Main and Discussion section with either no karma, like the SSC discussions, or only upvotes, like Tumblr, Facebook and other social media services used by rationalists.

Create a new section for links to interesting posts on external rationalist blogs. (h/t Houshalter) [I apologize for the overlap with the previous poll; I found this idea only after I'd made it.]

Submitting...

Comment author: Gondolinian 11 June 2015 07:10:32PM *  0 points [-]

Keep the same upvote/downvote system for individual comments and posts, but don't keep a total karma score for each user on their user page. Alternatively, keep a total karma score, but don't keep a total percent-positive score. (I believe the EA forum uses the former system, and Reddit the latter, but please correct me if I'm wrong about this.)

Submitting...

Comment author: RyanCarey 10 June 2015 05:44:08PM 0 points [-]

Create a new section for links to interesting posts on external rationalist blogs

There already is 'recently on rationality blogs'

Comment author: Gondolinian 10 June 2015 06:05:53PM 2 points [-]

True, but that's only from a very limited number of sources (~4?); it doesn't include the dozens of smaller blogs. It's also a straight feed--no filtering out of housekeeping, meta posts, etc.--and it only shows 5 links which are quickly pushed aside by newer ones, while a section for links would keep all of them accessible and searchable.

Comment author: Gondolinian 10 June 2015 05:12:22PM *  1 point [-]

Ideas from recent discussion regarding changes to the Promotion system:

[in progress]

Have Promotion be based on some kind of popular vote (not necessarily karma) or some other kind of community decision, instead of an Editor's decision.

Allow posts from Discussion to be Promoted without having to first be moved to Main.

Submitting...

Comment author: [deleted] 10 June 2015 03:52:41PM *  1 point [-]

I’m new to this discussion, so please excuse if this point has been discussed before: Perhaps it would be helpful to allow LW users to send optional (?) and anonymous messages when downvoting. I think, what is inefficient or even harsh about downvotes is that you cannot judge (1) whether the downvoter is actually in the position to judge you and (2) what the exact reason for the downvote is. It’s a bit like the (sometimes anxiety inducing) exercise of reading social cues, but it is in this case even more difficult due to the abstraction to a number.

Edit: Perhaps the downvote could also provide some anonymized information like karma, comment count and account creation date.

Comment author: Gondolinian 10 June 2015 04:02:13PM *  1 point [-]

This is already possible by logging into the Username account and sending a message or reply from there, but we could do something to make it more convenient. Thanks for the idea.

ETA: One possible issue with this I see is that the anonymity might encourage people to be meaner than they would be when posting/messaging under their main account, but perhaps there are ways around this?

Submitting...

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