Ask HN: What online communities offer a high level of discussion?
I would define ‘level’ in this case to mean:
1) Generally, discussions are analytical, emphasising reasoning and evidence
2) Submissions and discussions deal with topics that are intellectually stimulating
3) Many commenters show a high level of expertise around a topic - these comments often float to the top
4) For the most part, people are civil. Those who are uncivil are usually downvoted
Admittedly, this is much easier to foster with a community discussing technology, science and math (with a sprinkling of news/current affairs)
I often use HN as my ‘filter’ to decide what is interesting, and to observe and engage in discussions that offer multiple perspectives on a topic. It’s a much better filter than a social media news feed.
I’d like to find other intellectually stimulating communities - perhaps with a broader range of topics under discussion than the technology/science bent of HN, but having a similar ‘level’ of discussion.
71 comments
[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 151 ms ] threadDiscussions are mostly about the articles that Scott Alexander posts, but there are open threads twice a week (just click on "OPEN THREAD" in the top menu bar to go to the most recent one).
[1] slatestarcodex.com
* It is one poster listening to and responding to many people challenging her. That creates an inherent imbalance to the conversation.
* Since the beliefs of one person are the meta subject matter, that person alone (not other posters) is implicitly pressured to change their view to seem rational and open minded. Everyone else does not have the same pressure.
* To that end, I haven't seen a CMV awarded in the reverse direction.
* The up voted subjects are subject to the general biases of Reddit.
And I'd never post the link to a HN thread. A good culture and community is a fragile thing.
slatestarcodex.com
kk.org/cooltools/
reddit.com/r/audiodrama
It seems easier to find good narrowly defined communities than ones with broad reach. This is probably because of politics - it acts as a synaptic damper no matter how high your IQ is.
I subscribed to a bunch of other more domain specific subreddits, but as far as I can tell /r/askhistorians is an anomaly. Which, of course, manages to keep me coming back to Reddit, whose culture I hate.
4chan.org/g/
https://8ch.net/tech/index.html
https://lainchan.org/
Also, lainchan.org is pretty top tier if you want a more tech oriented chan.
In my view the single biggest job in Silicon Valley that nobody is taking seriously is the role of moderation. It's nearly impossible to do properly and yet there doesn't appear to be another choice.
It's not an easy problem to solve, I guess. I think Google is trying to make some inroads with Google News? But even then once you start personalizing the content, you're only going to see sources you like.
The question might be: do we really want to understand each other? Or straight to fisticuffs?
I don't regard myself as especially enlightened, I think that's another kind of trap, I think most of us just zone in and out of consciousness and 90% of this belongs to the lizard brain.
I suspect most moderators conflate centrism with non-bias or neutrality - but the real reason why the job is so difficult is precisely because sometimes the extremists are correct. Simply reining in the excesses of the left and right isn't enough.
I've said before: if a delay of several seconds was inserted into submissions to politically sensitive topics, that would help reduce # of death threats, name calling.
If it's any consolation the Internet has proven people have big mouths and fundamentally just can not be bothered to obtain genuine pitchforks.
The reason nobody's solved the "moderation" problem is because it's the wrong abstraction or the wrong problem to solve. The problem to solve is how to make filtering and discovery better.
As any online community expands, moderating and guaranteeing quality become extremely hard problems.
Free speech is a legal principle that allows communitieS of various opinions to appear, gather, discuss.
When one wants to create a community, one needs to have stronger standards than that as some subjects will tend to focus the attention on them.
We had an interesting experiment during a political shitstorm on /r/france (during the "Dieudonné affair" if you are interested): one month without political subjects. Heavy, exaggerated, broad, moderation line. Heh, it was a huge success! People who wanted to talk politics went to another sub (/r/francelibre or /r/politique) and the rest of the sub talked about lighter subjects. And enjoyed it.
But also, on the technical side, as someone who was active on Slashdot, I find reddit's system primitive and much easier to game. I am surprised that in a decade no better system has emerged.
Something that would use different weights for different people votes depending on your preferences. I would like setting to say "I want to see what people I find funny comment on that" next to "I want to see what people I disagree with, minus those I tagged troll, say about this".
https://gyroscopicinvesting.com/forum/index.php
It's a forum mostly about Harry Browne's Permanent Portfolio concept, but there is also good discourse on current events in the "Other Discussions" forum.
If you are comfortably well off and agree that hetero men are all inherently rapey bastards who should feel guilty for existing, hey, go for it.
* http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2014/11/having-sad.h...
If you're so anti-Mefi, why do you continue to take advantage of the site's resources, including posting questions to AskMe? Why not just disable your account?
Funny how mefites who want to attack me some more never want to do it in their own name. Whether harrassing me on my blogs or here, it is always anonymous.
I rarely post anything there anymore. I did post something yesterday. I am kind of regretting it.
I dislike letting assholes win by default. I like to imagine that taking the high road will work. I am also medically handicapped, so sometimes I just do stupid things because I am feverish or whatever.
But, I participate less and less. My profile there bears that out.
Haha sorry just kidding, I'll leave.
https://www.fatwallet.com/forums/finance
https://tinfoil.press
Here is a good example;
Bobtheoilguy - Forum dedicated to automotive lubricants. Some very in depth analysis and company insiders on occasion. Many users regularly send in oil for testing and post results. Great for info on the changing formulations of oil standards, and common additive packages. Very useful for me, owning old and new cars and bikes.
Agree with this, unfortunately
The general trend from responses is that there are many specialist communities that foster decent discussion. However, 'generalist' forums of a high quality are hard to find.
The best solution I have found for sports is twitter. I found other (reasonable) fans and can interact with and follow whomever I choose. The downside to twitter is it takes time to figure out who to follow. Also, the more people you follow, the more noise that creeps in. This is why I make heavy use of muting by keyword. It is my feed. I don't have to listen to you talk about things I am not interested in.
I fear that the big socials like FB have crowded out the traditional forums. People just don't have the time for all of this, so they default to the low hanging fruit.
There are a few interesting suggestions in this HN topic; will check them out as time allows.
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