I haven’t been sure how to balance niche vs. broad posts. I have written a couple of fairly niche essays recently, and I considered publishing them here but decided not to. My essay On Values Spreading was fairly niche, and originally I wasn’t going to publish it until a friend suggested I should. It hasn’t gotten as many upvotes as most of my other posts, which suggests to me that not as many people are interested. This might not be a bad thing though.
If I’m remembering verbal conversations correctly (always tricky to do), Ryan’s original vision was for people to consolidate much of their EA blogging on the Forum. I agreed that that was a good thing and do generally try to encourage it (though Peter Hurford and I were perhaps overly sceptical about it actually happening). The only exception would be if something is of extremely limited interest or clearly bad PR, and I’m with those people who find EAs over-worry about these things. Hell, even your exploration of prioritising funding rat farms might make the cut. ;)
Hmm. I’d expect that only maybe 10% of EAs would seriously consider rat farms as an effective charity so that post seemed pretty niche, and my post on whether preventing human extinction is good seems like it could be bad PR (I have no problem posting on my blog but I’m not sure what the standards should be for a shared forum). I could be wrong about those though, and I would be willing to consider posting all my EA-related writings to the forum.
I agree with Tom. I think the core values of EA have to include:
Always keep looking for new creative ways to do better.
Maintain an open, honest and respectful discussion with your peers.
In particular exploring new interventions and causes should always be in the EA spotlight. When you think something is an effective charity but most EAs wouldn’t agree with you, in my book it’s a reason to state your case loud and clear rather than self-censor.
I haven’t been sure how to balance niche vs. broad posts. I have written a couple of fairly niche essays recently, and I considered publishing them here but decided not to. My essay On Values Spreading was fairly niche, and originally I wasn’t going to publish it until a friend suggested I should. It hasn’t gotten as many upvotes as most of my other posts, which suggests to me that not as many people are interested. This might not be a bad thing though.
If I’m remembering verbal conversations correctly (always tricky to do), Ryan’s original vision was for people to consolidate much of their EA blogging on the Forum. I agreed that that was a good thing and do generally try to encourage it (though Peter Hurford and I were perhaps overly sceptical about it actually happening). The only exception would be if something is of extremely limited interest or clearly bad PR, and I’m with those people who find EAs over-worry about these things. Hell, even your exploration of prioritising funding rat farms might make the cut. ;)
Hmm. I’d expect that only maybe 10% of EAs would seriously consider rat farms as an effective charity so that post seemed pretty niche, and my post on whether preventing human extinction is good seems like it could be bad PR (I have no problem posting on my blog but I’m not sure what the standards should be for a shared forum). I could be wrong about those though, and I would be willing to consider posting all my EA-related writings to the forum.
I agree with Tom. I think the core values of EA have to include:
Always keep looking for new creative ways to do better.
Maintain an open, honest and respectful discussion with your peers.
In particular exploring new interventions and causes should always be in the EA spotlight. When you think something is an effective charity but most EAs wouldn’t agree with you, in my book it’s a reason to state your case loud and clear rather than self-censor.