a) AM did not verify email addresses? Ie, you could register someone else’s email address and they may not know it.
b) AM had users in repressive regimes where non-hetrosexuals faced violence/death? For some of AM’s users, the promise of a discrete forum represented a less-dangerous way to find partners
c) Additionally, AM was generally know to be a good place for queer/gay/bi/etc users to hook up even in non-repressive regimes.
d) It’s unknown how many users were single or ethically non-monogamous.
e) It’s unknown how many users were researchers/journalists/or just simply curious.
I understand your post is a joke, however it’s in poor taste. Also even if everybody involved was demonstrably a cheater, I don’t think it’s good for EA’s image to be seen as a finger wagging movement.
To expand on my last point: my understanding of effective altruism is that it is expansive. Generous. About becoming “more the people we wished we were”. I do not see it as a movement that ridicules or comes from schadenfreude or is punitive. The AM hack is the result of horribly unethical business and software practices, and its fallout is causing a lot of suffering. That’s why I think it’s bad for EA’s image if ‘we’ are seen to be joking about it.
Committing adultery causes a lot of suffering. Punishing people for anti-social behavior is an important part of any society, to incentivize good behavior. To the extent that western societies hardly punish this behavior at all, despite the huge amounts of suffering it causes, appropriately disincentivizing it could be an extremely effective way of improving the world.
Do you know that:
a) AM did not verify email addresses? Ie, you could register someone else’s email address and they may not know it.
b) AM had users in repressive regimes where non-hetrosexuals faced violence/death? For some of AM’s users, the promise of a discrete forum represented a less-dangerous way to find partners
c) Additionally, AM was generally know to be a good place for queer/gay/bi/etc users to hook up even in non-repressive regimes.
d) It’s unknown how many users were single or ethically non-monogamous.
e) It’s unknown how many users were researchers/journalists/or just simply curious.
I understand your post is a joke, however it’s in poor taste. Also even if everybody involved was demonstrably a cheater, I don’t think it’s good for EA’s image to be seen as a finger wagging movement.
To expand on my last point: my understanding of effective altruism is that it is expansive. Generous. About becoming “more the people we wished we were”. I do not see it as a movement that ridicules or comes from schadenfreude or is punitive. The AM hack is the result of horribly unethical business and software practices, and its fallout is causing a lot of suffering. That’s why I think it’s bad for EA’s image if ‘we’ are seen to be joking about it.
Committing adultery causes a lot of suffering. Punishing people for anti-social behavior is an important part of any society, to incentivize good behavior. To the extent that western societies hardly punish this behavior at all, despite the huge amounts of suffering it causes, appropriately disincentivizing it could be an extremely effective way of improving the world.