I suspect that many people don’t post on the forum because they’re worried about their post being poorly received and damaging their reputation in the EA community.
I believe this because I feel this way myself, because I’ve heard other people around me worrying a lot about posting to the forum, because Will MacAskill spoke on the 80,000 hours podcast of being anxious about their reputation being damaged after posting on the forum, and because of the existence of Aaron Gertler’s talk “Why you (yes, you) should post on the EA Forum”.
Perhaps, by default, new posts could be anonymous until a certain karma threshold (say 30 karma) is met. After that post meets the karma threshold, the true author of the post could become visible.
That way, authors could post knowing that their reputation wouldn’t be damaged if their post wasn’t well received, but that they would get the credit if the post was well received.
I’d expect this to increase the number of posts (both good and bad) from hesitant new users, and I think that the increase in the number of mediocre new posts would be a cost worth paying. It’s good for people to contribute and feel valued for their contribution, especially if it encourages them to make more valuable contributions in the future.
I think it’d be important that the anonymous-until-threshold was the default (i.e. opt out), so that people didn’t feel embarrassed about using it.
I do think pseudonymity is the right way to solve this. It’s plausible that we might want to make name-changes easier, so if you create a pseudonymous account, you can later take ownership over it more properly, if it turns out to not have embarassed you.
Meanwhile, name changes aren’t yet easy, but I’m happy to change a username if you ask! I can also transfer a pseudonymous post to your “real name” account if you have one and want to take ownership.
I suspect that many people don’t post on the forum because they’re worried about their post being poorly received and damaging their reputation in the EA community.
I believe this because I feel this way myself, because I’ve heard other people around me worrying a lot about posting to the forum, because Will MacAskill spoke on the 80,000 hours podcast of being anxious about their reputation being damaged after posting on the forum, and because of the existence of Aaron Gertler’s talk “Why you (yes, you) should post on the EA Forum”.
Perhaps, by default, new posts could be anonymous until a certain karma threshold (say 30 karma) is met. After that post meets the karma threshold, the true author of the post could become visible.
That way, authors could post knowing that their reputation wouldn’t be damaged if their post wasn’t well received, but that they would get the credit if the post was well received.
I’d expect this to increase the number of posts (both good and bad) from hesitant new users, and I think that the increase in the number of mediocre new posts would be a cost worth paying. It’s good for people to contribute and feel valued for their contribution, especially if it encourages them to make more valuable contributions in the future.
I think it’d be important that the anonymous-until-threshold was the default (i.e. opt out), so that people didn’t feel embarrassed about using it.
Do people not find it viable to post under a pseudonym? Is your worry about coming across as dishonest?
I do think pseudonymity is the right way to solve this. It’s plausible that we might want to make name-changes easier, so if you create a pseudonymous account, you can later take ownership over it more properly, if it turns out to not have embarassed you.
Meanwhile, name changes aren’t yet easy, but I’m happy to change a username if you ask! I can also transfer a pseudonymous post to your “real name” account if you have one and want to take ownership.