site banner
TissueReligion  2yr ago (text post)   2774 thread views

Are there any other non-reddit forums you guys use?

Hey guys. Just registered, using the same account name as my reddit username. I thought it was interesting that we finally splintered off of reddit -- are there any other non-reddit forums you guys use? I know the nyc rationality group has a google group, but for the past 5ish years it's felt like every forum I use has been centralized on reddit, which has honestly been pretty convenient. Was just curious about other people's browsing habits.

Thanks.

13
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Private Discords and schizo Twitter.

https://aristillus.xyz/

Its basically a SEEKRIT KLUB for grey-tribers of the general "pro-technology, anti-authoritarian" bent of both left and right variety.

Can you send me an invite?

Is it worth applying to get an account?

I've been in there for about two years now and I consider it well worth the time. It's a good cultural fit for me, though.

Its one of those places where occasionally someone with real insider knowledge will post about a really fascinating topic out of nowhere.

And free speech is treated as terminal value, which is nice.

For example, there are temporary chan-style boards for anon commentary, that automatically delete on a timer:

https://tempchan.com/#QqebS64zZhda67U45XuyfQ

https://tempchan.com/#QqebS64zZhda67U45XuyfQ

I think I remember you sending me these generated links back on /r/TheMotte. Been a while. These now churn on an RSS feed?

Some of those comments definitely sell this board. I'll apply.

I really liked this one:

Red cons blue cons, red roads blue roads, red stores blue stores. Red jobs, blue jobs.

The new Dr. Seuss book

Hacker News (specifically news.ycombinator.com, there are multiple "hacker news" sites.)

The overlap with the SSC/Motte community is higher than you'd expect. The community has a higher-than-elementary level understanding of AI, the tech sector, and business, and leans politically center or slightly left for US politics.

leans left? It is left

Of course. I almost just mentally lump in HN with reddit as part of my morning bed-browsing every day.

The overlap with the SSC/Motte community is higher than you'd expect

well, HN is much much larger than ssc/themotte - ssc articles occasionally get frontpage, and a lot of us browse there, but there isn't much overlap relative to HN just by size.

Mostly just use it for programming related reading.

Not exactly forums, but I do comment under various bloggers on older platforms or on substack as well.

Aether is a p2p forum I've used for years. Pretty small population. You might consider trying it out: https://getaether.net.

datasecretslox

I just browsed and found the quality of discussion to be disappointing. Is there a subset of the forum you particularly like?

I also recognize that it can be fun to roll in the mud a little. I myself participate in some low quality forums.

DSL has some high effort stuff, which is half the reason I read there - look at the 'diadochi: alexander prize for effortposting' for some historical very high quality stuff, or the 'effort' tag for other effort posts.

It's a very similar audience to here, often some of the same people and it also descends from SSC and leans right - but I just looked and the current front page is pretty boring politics fantasy stuff

Images boards and unmentionables on Urbit

How good do you need to be with computers to get on Urbit? Would you recommend a computer-normie invest some time getting online?

It's not that hard anymore. You'll need to buy a planet (well, you don't have to exactly), through something like OpenSea, which you can use with Metamask. Follow this:

https://urbit.org/getting-started

If you're already in this community, you can consider yourself adjacent to Urbit.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


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.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats