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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   3870 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 18, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Definitely, I’ve commented on it before but it has a rare combination of people who are smart, intellectually curious, intellectually honest, and have a high openness to experience. And it’s largely this way thanks to the Bay Area Rationalist writers cultivating an audience with these qualities. If you advertised your forum as being a place for smart, curious, open-minded people, it wouldn’t attract nearly the same caliber of users.

I’ll second @bolido_sentimental ‘s idea that it should be used for more general purpose discussion. It’s sort of arbitrary that the Culture War Thread is the site’s main weekly thread. Even if it did start as a more CW-oriented version of the SlateStarCodex subreddit, the userbases have noticeably diverged and many people here are well-informed on topics outside the CW, and most of the broader CW discussions have been had. I think the Maker’s Monday is a great start, enjoyed reading about the projects people have been working on.

Well then start more general discussion.

I’d like to, there are some topics I have in mind. But where exactly do I post about them? Right now the main threads are focused on culture war, health & wellness, personal projects, questions, fun, and small-scale questions. What if I just want to share my thoughts on an issue without making a top-level post? Or is the bar for top-level posts not actually that high? Seems few people actually take advantage of the ability. Relegating all the top-level posts to one of the weekly threads seems like a holdover from the days of Reddit where it helped us not get banned, but doesn’t seem like there’s much of a reason for it now.

Well, first off a lot of topics you have in mind likely fit in one of the threads- hobbies could go in projects or fun, wellness Wednesday is open to any self improvement topic, etc.

I also think the bar for a top level comment is lower than you think. Like what topics do you have in mind?

I was referring to separate threads not just top-level comments. I’ve been meaning to make effort posts on Georgism/Land Value Tax, various topics in philosophy of mind, my thoughts on the sociology of religion.

It'd be cool if we got a second weekly (or whatever duration works best) thread for generic non-politics-related effort-intensive posts. I think I like that better than having separate top level posts, ordinarily.

@Amadan (or whoever) might this be worth doing?

All of those seem like they hit the requirements for a post, though.

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