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What is this place?
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Why are you called The Motte?
A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently,
it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey",
originally identified by
philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial
but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens
this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for
the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired
propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."
On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.
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Notes -
Why? We don't even see numbers until moat conversations are already over?
I wish we'd go back to instantly visible or not having them at all. Having them appear after one day combines the worst of both worlds.
Seconded. They really serve no purpose. They don't shrink, there's no purpose.
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People still keep track (both of their own history, and what happened to other posters in older parts of the thread), I imagine.
If the numbers are hidden for longer, that just makes it more insidious, since the up/down ratio still shapes the community by influencing the ordering in which replies are presented.Apparently I missed that we don't do sort by votes and probably also lost Reddit's graying of heavily downvoted responses.The default is "sort by new". I guess if you changed it back to the reddit "sort by top" that would be a concern.
Ah, I didn't realise. Sorry, I guess that's actually a non-concern then.
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