The lesswrong slack has been active for 2-3 years now. It’s a garden in as much as I try to keep it peaceful.
A new member joined the slack recently. He asked: What are the moderation rules here?
I wrote the brief rules, but then I also was feeling particularly chatty so I also introduced several of our regular characters. Below is a log of that conversation.
There are few rules. I am in charge. Only ever banned three guys. This is a private community. It's rare that we have any problems. And if we do we talk about it.
We know each other quite well. These are all my friends, also practically my family. I can introduce the regulars.
We have about 40 active users from the pool of 577 or so that have signed up to try out if we suit.
We are generally quiet ~3000 messages a week, Spread over several channels. A feature of being quiet is that we all tend to read all the messages, no matter what channel they appear in. That keeps us close together and good friends!
@jollybard is a musician turned mathematician, now studying. He is brilliant at anything he puts his mind to but terrible at anything he doesn't. Currently balancing his own badbrains (bipolar) with his SO’s. He is often in #math and #art_and_media.
@gonight. Queen of #rational_hell for writing with the greatest possible meme density.
@adamzerner works more hours in a day than anyone. He has a very strict schedule and is a programmer. His hobby is poker and has been building a software in #business_and_startups. He has non-standard relationships and often talks about the strange things that people normally do that don't make sense to him. I met him and he's a very kind soul. I believe he grew up without being surrounded by very smart people. He was worried he'd never find them, destined for a lonely life. But he eventually found us and other smart people and he's happy that he made it.
@mll is a brilliant researcher into chemistry and biology and neurology. He can usually say what any chemical can do. He hates being wrong and is obsessed with being correct (as a weakness and a strength) you can find him in #cognitive_enhancement #mental_health and #science_n_technology among other places. If you have a hypothesis about some chemical causing some symptom he can usually suggest whether it's likely or not. Also he's in #fit
@ray is our resident hedonist. He pursues food and sex so well he makes us proud to live auspiciously through his eyes. He is also studying business, exercising when not doing the rest and is famous for bi-hacking himself and _shower beers_. He also coined the term "wild rats" for rationalists that don't know they are part of us yet. Always in #fit and #dieting_and_food
If you head to #sexual_preferences we talk about all manner of possibilities.
You might meet @cpopell, professional dancer, lover, hacker of okc accounts. Weight lifter for 20 years...
@rebecca is usually in #sexual_preferences but only when her many poly relationships give her time to chat to us. She kind of coordinated a community in Seattle. However she is occasionally alone, sometimes leading to weird feelings. We love her despite her not having much time to visit. She also hangs out in #human_relationships, #personal_finance, #mental_health and #real_life_advice.
@wubbles is a mathematician and programmer. He's very tall and once met @helldalgo. He is cool and busy working as a grad student in math at the moment, leading to much stress.
@helldalgo is everyone's mother. She is also in some kind of tech business and manages accounts.
@faun is an eudaimonia optimizer living in new Zealand. They have a great acumen for concepts and projections because they are so isolated from the real world (I joke). Also a #programming person. Has a creative eye for the problems of the world. Faun is also a writer of things story-like. And makes computer games that make you think hard about reality.
@s0ph1a lived in a barn in Belgium on top of a chocolate factory. She moved to the UK and lived in a Kernel (a rat sharehouse). Old school lesswrong, dates back to olden days, visits via IRC. We often ping her up when we’re looking for an old ratsphere article. Spent so long on pot that she had no motivation. She taught herself programming and is changing her life direction now and doing amazingly well.
@jaydee is in Melbourne and joined us shortly after ending a relationship. He is in the process of managing his mental health and enjoying getting his life together while holding down a job.
@bluehawk is also in Melbourne and and works in a production company making educational videos for high school in Australia. He is having a lot of fun but has a bigger passion in making and directing film than management. He is making a lot of money and finds his work very rewarding.
@deku-shrub is the pirate of London! http://pirate.london . He is a cyber crime researcher who defeats the paid killer scams on the dark Web. He also has a robot girlfriend saga which you can ask him about.
@gjm is a long time lesswronger. He's a mathematician, in industry in Cambridge. Generally smart guy. Knows his stuff. Likes #math and #business_and_startups
@nish81 is also in London and makes money by playing online casino games. Recently decided to quit that and retire. Is now looking at other opportunities, mainly in the stock trading scene.
@regex has been busy recently but is studying while trying to solve a concentration problem in their headspace for about six months now. They have tried many many things. Recent progress: grape juice. (follow up: turns out it was depression and medication helps)
@erratio is in Sydney with me and @tim. @erratio started #vulnerability and #enlightenment with me to explore those topics. Vulnerability came about when I had an entire working model of the world that didn't account for that branch of complexity. I was confused and we started a channel to talk about it. She’s very knowledgeable about psychology and therapy stuff.
@tim is a weight lifter at age 60 and studying physics and reading finance papers. He has difficulty knowing whether to trust people so he had to teach himself how to work that out on his own. He is also brilliant but humble as all hell. Reads a lot of papers. Currently likes figuring out how bad the replication crisis is. He's working on 3rd year physics on his own and studying mining engineering.
@freyley is in business and enjoys talking start-ups and business. He's also a #parenting regular and he's awesome at it.
@mindspillage is a lawyer and is super cool. She works in tech and IP law, or patent law or space law or both. Or environmental law, but for the light side of the Force (free software, free culture, free speech). Or all of the above. She also has amazing hair. Oh, and she has a music degree and plays the bassoon.
@ruthan is our resident bad at communicating that she has the hots for everyone in her life\ and spins off hilarious stories all the time. When not busy having a crush on every human, she writes code and sings a lot. She has like 3 choirs she sings with. She hangs out in #campfire, #vulnerability and #human_relationships
@yaacov is studying CS, and will soon be working at a big evil company that you probably hate. He runs a Jewish student housing coop in his free time.
and we all drive around in a van and solve mysteries. But actually we all hang out and solve each other's problems.
Did I mention I have a crush on all my friends? Cause I do.
Erratio: more like a minibus. with that many of us _:stuck_out_tongue:_
@namespace is highly competent and wrote the last two less wrong surveys. Namespace has strong opinions on how the world is broken by bad systems. He is currently working on making the world a better place by his own darn hard work.
@aaron doesn't know who he is yet but is meditating on it and will get back to you.
@fasteir is a bit newer.
#today_i_did_this is our celebration channel
Ruthan: @elo, since I see he did not bio himself, he is a relentlessly kind and full of interesting metrics (like his friends ranking.) I don’t remember what he does day-to-day but I would not be surprised to learn it involved some random agrarian endeavor like ostrich farming.
Jollybard: @elo likes to manage communities, like the sydney rationality dojo
@Azatris is great! He's a programmer who up traded countries for more money. He is being paid a great sum to do what he was doing a few months back. Last I heard he was trying out relationships and looking for a squad to go squadgoals on
@unconbentional is a wedding photographer by trade. And he has the best and cutest of cheeks.
@gyrodot did his AI PhD while with us. He had a lot of stress in his life at the time between his ex and his 4 year old (and growing) kid. He is supported by his wonderful parents, his amazing friends and he is growing the french rationality community almost single handedly. Because you can’t hold a good man back from his goals.
@tomaff is a free thinking programmer type who has been getting into acting classes in his spare time. He’s having a lot of fun discovering how to be social.
If you are curious what it’s like, feel free to join us. PM me your email address for an invite as per Less Wrong Slack - Lesswrongwiki.