I never got the hang of irc myself. I find the transience and reliance on simultaneous presence to be a bit of a burden. I prefer the slower pace of forum threads, and its higher word-per-post ratio. However, it's not like I'm going to push for alternative options if what already exists is deemed satisfactory by everyone.
/me shrugs
The open threads are less formal than the rest of the site's discussions.
As for karma, the trick is just not caring very much.
As for karma, the trick is just not caring very much.
I find that when opening the website, my first (and very quick) glance is invariably directed at my karma score, even when I have not posted recently.
I wish there was a userstyle or some other way to hide karma. The LW anti-kibitzer is inaccessible at this time and I'm not even sure it hides self karma. I promise to upvote any solution to this.
There was an attempt to create one about a year ago. The forum still exists although no one uses it.
Idea: have an option to tag a comment as fluff.
Fluffy comments wouldn't have upvote and downvote arrows/thumbs.
The hide fluff button changes to a view of the comment database that omits them.
Once the reader gets bored of being all serious, all the time a simple click on the show fluff button brings them all back, until the reader gets their fill of candy-floss comments.
You might want to try the the subreddit, but I think most people are satisfied with the open threads and IRC.
The Felicifia forum for utilitarians has an overlapping userbase and is nearby to your suggestion in concept-space: http://felicifia.org/
I'd propose that THIS is the place, the "discussion" section of the site. The people who don't like a particular post or discussion topic can just go on to the next.
I'd like to see a karma voting system that kept the positive and negative totals. For simplicity (?) the net could still be what is shown in cases where compactness and simplicity of presentation means it. But the user page and any page that shows the text of comments/posts would show the plus and minus points rather than just the net.
My idea here is, I am generally interested ...
SO VERY MUCH THIS! I wish I could upvote this I million times. I've been trying to get this discussion started or just directly making a place like this and inviting people, many times, but it has never managed to catch on (and they are all gone now).
I’m not sure if its something I would use that much, but since this thread seems to show that there is some interest in a casual non karmic discussion corner, here’s a proposal for how to create one that could be implemented immediately and requires no coding 1) In discussion, create a new thread called “Non Karmic Casual Discussion Thread” or something similar
2) in the first post establish the groundrules:
“Hi, Welcome to the Non-Karmic-Casual-Discussion-Thread.
This is a place for [purpose of thread goes here].
In order to create a causal non karmic enviro...
I have never been on a Lesswrong meetup because they tend to take place too far away from my range in terms of distance and budget. Because of that, I don't know if those perform this function to everyone's satisfaction in such a way that what I'm suggesting here doesn't seem worth the effort. I hear that they're a lot of fun, and involve quite a bit of silliness, though; I find those cruelly lacking on Lesswrong proper, whether it be in main posts or discussion posts, and their relevant threads.
That's why I think it would be nice to have a forum, a place to have normal discussions, where you don't have to watch that you don't say anything stupid or out-of-line lest you unexpectedly lose karma. A place to exchange jokes, frivolities, and entertainment. A place to talk about stuff that isn't rationality or singularity-related. A place to relax and enjoy the company of like-minded folks. A place to take a more personal approach to communication, with sequential rather than branching conversations. A place to make and be friends.
Don't you think having that would be nice?
EDIT: Also, if this place does already exist and I'm not aware of it, I humbly request that you provide me a link, for which I would be most grateful.