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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   4001 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 12, 2023

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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What subreddits do you think have the most intelligent commenters? It's hard to explain, but some subreddits just give me a vibe that their commenters are more intelligent, with stuff like word choice and how they structure their comments. I'm not talking about their actual beliefs being insightful or correct, there are a lot of very smart people who believe very dumb things and some subreddits pretty much select for that, and I'm not just talking about essay writing ability either. AskHistorians top level commenters, often being actual historians, are very intelligent. I think this site has a lot of intelligent people but it also has more than a few people who aren't that bright. /r/slatestarcodex is very intelligent. /r/neoconNWO doesn't have many people writing long comments, their discussion thread is mostly people joking around with some serious commentary on politics, but they always come off as very intelligent to me. /r/neoliberal used to be like /r/neoconNWO, but as they've vastly grown the past few years they've become basically identical to an average politics subreddit. /r/sneerclub whenever I browse it makes me incredibly frustrated with how close minded and biased they are, but they also clearly are very intelligent and are the same type of people as this site or /r/slatestarcodex, just that they have absolute confidence in the prior that leftism is correct. Occasional comments in /r/programmerhumour seem to come from people who are very intelligent and absolutely know what they're talking about, but the majority aren't anything special.

This is in contrast to subs like /r/purplepilldebate, which go on lengthy debates about sex and gender and dating in a similar vein to many discussions on this site, but they don't have the same vibes of intelligence. As far as I know pretty much every incel subreddit is now banned, but when they weren't the commenters always came off as very dumb to me.

/r/weightroom has the smartest commenters of any subreddit, because they mercilessly prune anyone who doesn't. You have to prove that you actually ARE big and strong, or it ain't happening for you. They gatekeep mercilessly.

So the question is, how do you gatekeep intelligence on an open forum? The only way outside of such objective tools as "What's your powerlifting total?" is to put something offensive to normies in the forum. Like long boring effortposts, or constant efforts to redefine everything, or whatever.

What subreddits do you think have the most intelligent commenters?

Intelligent commenters on reddit who most of the time know what they are talking about?

Try any subreddit dedicated to practical skills, advice or help, one strongly moderated where political shit slinging and off topic content are not tolerated.

For example, financial or legal advice

https://old.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/

https://old.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/

https://old.reddit.com/r/leanfire/

(lots of links to other subreddits in sidebars)

https://old.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/

https://old.reddit.com/r/legaladvice/wiki/index#wiki_other_subreddits

I like /r/stupidpol, even though the commenters there tend to be pretty far gone on the Covid doomerism train (even today, three years after March 2020).

My understanding is that one specific /r/stupidpol powerjanny basically went hardcore zerocovidist and brought the rest of the sub to the same line through usual moderation stuff (strategic bans and thread removals etc.)

Yes, but that person is gone now and the new mod team is more sensible.

I'm actually going to argue against slatestarcodex, despite it being the genesis of this place. /r/SSC was very intelligent, but I think a number of factors have drastically dragged down the level of discussion there.

One is just size, with the subreddit having grown rapidly as Scott's following has grown, and that will always bring down an average. And there is the problem of the motte itself: a lot of good commentators might have started at /r/ssc, but ended up migrating most of their comments to here, or to DSL, or even to lesswrong or the ACX open threads.

The somewhat directionless nature of the subreddit is another problem, since the early selection effects of the subreddit have now faded away, bringing in a lot of random commentators.

I'll still go there regularly, but nowadays it seems like only 1 in 10 comments is worth bothering with, compared to a much higher proportion before.

Relatedly, I've noticed a lot more inane and just plain stupid comments on ACX posts these days. (example, another).

Maybe I'm looking at the past through rose coloured glasses, but I can't remember this sort of thing back on SSC. After wading through enough emoji reacts and "lol so true!!", I get annoyed and close the tab. It's frustrating that a growing percentage readership feels this is meaningful participation.

Can those sorts of comments not be jannied?

On rsp/drama, I know people say that but I am yet to come across an example. And Im not conflating intelligence with having the right opinions or conclusions.

Neoliberal also banned all non approved debate. They banished anyone from the Milton Friedmon school. Initially it was just the annoyance of dealing with downvotes. Then 2 years later mass purges.

I always thought that sub should have been banned or remoderated. It never seemed right to me that a group could co-opt a name that was obviously very conservative. Felt like cultural appropriation.

Neoliberal also banned all non approved debate. They banished anyone from the Milton Friedmon school. Initially it was just the annoyance of dealing with downvotes. Then 2 years later mass purges.

This describes almost all subs. They start out tolerant of many viewpoints and then past a certain threshold of popularity, began to censor hard.

What subreddits do you think have the most intelligent commenters? It's hard to explain, but some subreddits just give me a vibe that their commenters are more intelligent

If you are going by raw IQ, it would be subs pertaining to coding/programing, physics, math, machine learning, etc. Below that it would be philosophy, ask historians, rationality, and fitness subs

politics subs would be near the bottom , along with mainstream enterintemnt and sports.

Hmm but this is relative to the rest of reddit. Maybe math and physics are at the top and then programming, finance subs are second?

I don’t know if I’d go with less intelligent so much as less experienced and mature. And in a sub like cscareerquestions, also non intellectual.

I don't actually get the impression that the people on /r/sneerclub are that smart. /r/badeconomics is OK.

I think they are above average but their tone is off-putting, hence the name

they are part of the 'bad network' of subs that shit on everyone to the right of the far-left.

It's not just the tone. Their criticisms often don't make any sense and you can tell they don't really understand what they're reacting to.

That strikes me as more of an intelligence vs good judgement kind of thing. Or put in other terms, they seem to have an amazing, state-of-the-art engine driven by a drunk driver.

That's the exact vibe I get from them, your metaphor captures it perfectly.

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