Just a quick note from a moderator. I could be wrong, but looks like you maybe discovered LessWrong via interest in a political topic. While we do have such discussion on the site, we are primarily a site about rationality and how to think rationally about all topics. We ask users be aware of our general approach to discussion and approach to politics.
Your contributions so far are fine, but if you intend to comment a lot more, please get familiar with LessWrong's special and valuable culture!
Quick note to say that your recent writing on AI and AI Alignment feels like it doesn't hit the standard for LessWrong's discussion. As we have a lot of AI content, we're especially judicious in ensuring that everything posted is clear, reasonable, takes into account existing arguments and ideas, and demonstrates good understanding of relevant concepts. Of course, there's a lot to have covered, very reasonable if someone hasn't mastered it all yet!
I'd like you to contribute less on LessWrong at this time. [FILL IN: I have...mod action] Suggestions for what you can do instead:
Check out Stampy, a wiki project and community about AI Safety/Alignment
Quick note to say that your recent comments didn't feel up to LessWrong standard. We pride ourselves on an unusually high quality of discourse. I ask that you invest a little more effort in meeting the standard.
It's often tricky to communicate what makes for a good/bad contribution and we often flag posts and comment for any of the following reasons:
- poor reasoning - ignoring of well-known existing arguments or evidence - poor formatting, punctuation, or grammar - low clarity - inappropriate/hostile tone (we are more forgiving of established users but expect new users to err on the side of civility when they first join) - appearing on the site over a "pet topic" - other...
To best get a sense of desired content on the site, I encourage you in the meantime to read widely on the site, paying attention to which comments get upvoted, before writing again. That's the best way to learn the site's norms.
Quick mod note: I've removed your ability to make top-level posts and comment on other people's posts, since most of your comments seem narrowly focused on a worldview and set of topics which are poorly suited for LessWrong. (Despite its appearance, LessWrong is not a general-purpose discussion forum, and other platforms are more suitable for those discussions.)
You can continue to read posts and use your own shortform, though if you do decide to do so I recommend focusing less on political topics and more on other object-level topics. See https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Sdx6A6yLByRRs8iLY/fact-posts-how-and-why as an example of more appropriate content (both the post itself and also the kinds of posts it describes).
Hey {{firstName}}. Quick note that on LessWrong we prefer people not to have "Organization" user names. i.e. we prefer you choose a username that conveys that you're an individual, rather than a representative of a group. We prefer this because it tends to push towards people's beliefs being less clear, and harder to argue with.
i.e. groups sometimes have 'official organizational beliefs' but then it gets sort of confusing who you're actually discussing things with. Sometimes the 'official belief' is a weird compromise that no one person actually endorses.
(You can change your username at https://www.lesswrong.com/account. Note you can only change displayNames once on your own, but if you need to change it a second time you can message a site admin and we'll change it for you).
I'm a LessWrong mod, and wanted to do a quick reach out. You recently made some comments touching upon politics, about which LessWrong has some subtle, unique guidelines.
[A] Your recent comment didn't have anything wrong with it, but we find it good practice to touch base with people about our political discussion culture. We ask all users to read through the LessWrong Politics Prerequisites Sequence before commenting or contributing posts that deal with either mainstream politics, or local community arguments about what norms people should follow.
[B] Your recent comments felt a bit off in terms of LessWrong political norms. We ask all users to read through the LessWrong Politics Prerequisites sequence before commenting or contributing posts that deal with either mainstream politics, or local community arguments about what norms people should follow.
In general I recommend that new users on LessWrong first focus on discussing non-political topics while they get a feel for the discussion culture. I can answer more specific questions if you have them.
Hey {{firstName}}, welcome to LessWrong! I appreciated your recent comments [[insert link if appropriate]].
I do want to note... we don't precisely have a rule on what sort of usernames are acceptable, but I generally recommend picking a username that is easy to remember and pronounce out loud. {{displayName}} is kinda [long/hard-to-remember/hard-to-say] and I'd recommend picking something easier to say.
(note: users can change their displayName once, if you've already changed it you need to ask an admin to do it for you)
Hey, minor mod-note on our spoiler policy: for things like discussing later spoilers in HPMOR, we prefer you use spoiler blocks. You can generate spoiler blocks like so:
>! type whatever you want in spoiler blocks like this...
type whatever you want in spoiler blocks like this...
Hey {{firstName}}, quick mod note: some of your recent writing had some bad formatting. (i.e. improper capitalization, no spaces between sentences, no breaks between paragraphs). Just a heads up / request that you put a bit more polish into formatting.
Hey {{firstName}}. Quick mod note on your first post:
While it's not unreasonable to ask for help with productivity stuff, I think it's usually better not to be a person's first post. We have a bunch of resources on Akrasia/Productivity/Procrastination, which you can get an overview of on the Akrasia tag.
I'd give that a look to get started. I've moved your current post to draft, but if you'd like to post it in the Open Thread that'd be fine.
Hey {{firstName}}. Quick moderator note – many of your posts so far seem like they'd be a better fit for shortform. I've moved them back to draft for now, but you're welcome to post them as shortform content.
Proactive Politics Message \\
Hi {{firstName}},
Just a quick note from a moderator. I could be wrong, but looks like you maybe discovered LessWrong via interest in a political topic. While we do have such discussion on the site, we are primarily a site about rationality and how to think rationally about all topics. We ask users be aware of our general approach to discussion and approach to politics.
Your contributions so far are fine, but if you intend to comment a lot more, please get familiar with LessWrong's special and valuable culture!
Cheers,
{{modName}}
Mediocre AI Content \\
Hey {{firstName}},
Quick note to say that your recent writing on AI and AI Alignment feels like it doesn't hit the standard for LessWrong's discussion. As we have a lot of AI content, we're especially judicious in ensuring that everything posted is clear, reasonable, takes into account existing arguments and ideas, and demonstrates good understanding of relevant concepts. Of course, there's a lot to have covered, very reasonable if someone hasn't mastered it all yet!
I'd like you to contribute less on LessWrong at this time. [FILL IN: I have...mod action] Suggestions for what you can do instead:
Thanks and sorry.
PS: If in 3-6 months you have invested in improving your output, you can message us and share evidence of your progress and we can re-evaluate.
Ruby General Quality Message \\
Hi {{firstName}},
Quick note to say that your recent comments didn't feel up to LessWrong standard. We pride ourselves on an unusually high quality of discourse. I ask that you invest a little more effort in meeting the standard.
It's often tricky to communicate what makes for a good/bad contribution and we often flag posts and comment for any of the following reasons:
- poor reasoning
- ignoring of well-known existing arguments or evidence
- poor formatting, punctuation, or grammar
- low clarity
- inappropriate/hostile tone (we are more forgiving of established users but expect new users to err on the side of civility when they first join)
- appearing on the site over a "pet topic"
- other...
To best get a sense of desired content on the site, I encourage you in the meantime to read widely on the site, paying attention to which comments get upvoted, before writing again. That's the best way to learn the site's norms.
Thanks and sorry!
Ruby
Axe Grinding \\
Hey {{firstName}},
Quick mod note: I've removed your ability to make top-level posts and comment on other people's posts, since most of your comments seem narrowly focused on a worldview and set of topics which are poorly suited for LessWrong. (Despite its appearance, LessWrong is not a general-purpose discussion forum, and other platforms are more suitable for those discussions.)
You can continue to read posts and use your own shortform, though if you do decide to do so I recommend focusing less on political topics and more on other object-level topics. See https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/Sdx6A6yLByRRs8iLY/fact-posts-how-and-why as an example of more appropriate content (both the post itself and also the kinds of posts it describes).
No Org Usernames \\
Hey {{firstName}}. Quick note that on LessWrong we prefer people not to have "Organization" user names. i.e. we prefer you choose a username that conveys that you're an individual, rather than a representative of a group. We prefer this because it tends to push towards people's beliefs being less clear, and harder to argue with.
i.e. groups sometimes have 'official organizational beliefs' but then it gets sort of confusing who you're actually discussing things with. Sometimes the 'official belief' is a weird compromise that no one person actually endorses.
(You can change your username at https://www.lesswrong.com/account. Note you can only change displayNames once on your own, but if you need to change it a second time you can message a site admin and we'll change it for you).
Politics \\
Hey {{firstName}},
I'm a LessWrong mod, and wanted to do a quick reach out. You recently made some comments touching upon politics, about which LessWrong has some subtle, unique guidelines.
[A] Your recent comment didn't have anything wrong with it, but we find it good practice to touch base with people about our political discussion culture. We ask all users to read through the LessWrong Politics Prerequisites Sequence before commenting or contributing posts that deal with either mainstream politics, or local community arguments about what norms people should follow.
[B] Your recent comments felt a bit off in terms of LessWrong political norms. We ask all users to read through the LessWrong Politics Prerequisites sequence before commenting or contributing posts that deal with either mainstream politics, or local community arguments about what norms people should follow.
In general I recommend that new users on LessWrong first focus on discussing non-political topics while they get a feel for the discussion culture. I can answer more specific questions if you have them.
Make username pronounceable\\
Hey {{firstName}}, welcome to LessWrong! I appreciated your recent comments [[insert link if appropriate]].
I do want to note... we don't precisely have a rule on what sort of usernames are acceptable, but I generally recommend picking a username that is easy to remember and pronounce out loud. {{displayName}} is kinda [long/hard-to-remember/hard-to-say] and I'd recommend picking something easier to say.
(note: users can change their displayName once, if you've already changed it you need to ask an admin to do it for you)
Spoilers \\
Hey, minor mod-note on our spoiler policy: for things like discussing later spoilers in HPMOR, we prefer you use spoiler blocks. You can generate spoiler blocks like so:
type whatever you want in spoiler blocks like this...Formatting / Grammar \\
Hey {{firstName}}, quick mod note: some of your recent writing had some bad formatting. (i.e. improper capitalization, no spaces between sentences, no breaks between paragraphs). Just a heads up / request that you put a bit more polish into formatting.
Re: "First post asking for akrasia tips" \\
Hey {{firstName}}. Quick mod note on your first post:
While it's not unreasonable to ask for help with productivity stuff, I think it's usually better not to be a person's first post. We have a bunch of resources on Akrasia/Productivity/Procrastination, which you can get an overview of on the Akrasia tag.
I'd give that a look to get started. I've moved your current post to draft, but if you'd like to post it in the Open Thread that'd be fine.
Switch to shortform \\
Hey {{firstName}}. Quick moderator note – many of your posts so far seem like they'd be a better fit for shortform. I've moved them back to draft for now, but you're welcome to post them as shortform content.