I struggle with seeing polls like this as being a valid source of information that change my beliefs because we have no way of knowing who is actually voting and whether or not they are trolls.
I think you’re right to be cautious, although most of the other sources of information I could think of have some significant flaws of some sort as well. So it’s probably best to look for consensus from several different information flows that don’t have too many overlapping weaknesses.
Also they really exploit the forum’s karma system. Should we strong vote for strong agree? If so, mine would be worth about 3x the average forum user’s. Even if I only ‘weak’ vote, it automatically gives +/-2 to the karma score now.
Even if sock puppet accounts do not currently influence votes, the more the EA community will use such polls to decide on things the more likely such influence will become.
I think we currently see too little community sensemaking, not too much. And if sockpuppets could be used on polls they could be used everywhere. Why not complain that the whole voting system is wrong?
I mean, trolling requires EAs (the only people who are looking at a page at the bottom of the home page) creating additional accounts. I think it’s unlikely they would do that.
Good point. Maybe the forum could introduce up- and downvoting restrictions until a new account has reached a few milestones, like being active for more than a month and adding comments with overall positive upvotes. This is how I remember StackOverflow handling this.
We have at least some basic tools to detect account-creation and mass-voting. I don’t think the voting system is perfect, but at least on LW I would notice if someone was creating multiple accounts to vote, as I have noticed multiple times in the past.
A very valid concern. Thankfully, if I’m not mistaken, the moderators block troll votes (70% confidence) and have done so already in the past (50% confidence).
I struggle with seeing polls like this as being a valid source of information that change my beliefs because we have no way of knowing who is actually voting and whether or not they are trolls.
I think you’re right to be cautious, although most of the other sources of information I could think of have some significant flaws of some sort as well. So it’s probably best to look for consensus from several different information flows that don’t have too many overlapping weaknesses.
Also they really exploit the forum’s karma system. Should we strong vote for strong agree? If so, mine would be worth about 3x the average forum user’s. Even if I only ‘weak’ vote, it automatically gives +/-2 to the karma score now.
I think they are better than nothing. I would like specific voting objects but we make do with what we have.
Let’s be real, many people upvoting here don’t actually think there are trolls, but the polls make you uneasy, right?
perhaps because you feel they are an oversimplification? or because you feel they are unrepresentative?
Even if sock puppet accounts do not currently influence votes, the more the EA community will use such polls to decide on things the more likely such influence will become.
I think we currently see too little community sensemaking, not too much. And if sockpuppets could be used on polls they could be used everywhere. Why not complain that the whole voting system is wrong?
I agree that such concerns are not limited to the polls on this page. (I’ve also wrote a comment related to such concerns here.)
I mean, trolling requires EAs (the only people who are looking at a page at the bottom of the home page) creating additional accounts. I think it’s unlikely they would do that.
I think the amount of press EA has gotten lately makes it more likely for there to be trolls but I could be wrong.
Good point. Maybe the forum could introduce up- and downvoting restrictions until a new account has reached a few milestones, like being active for more than a month and adding comments with overall positive upvotes. This is how I remember StackOverflow handling this.
I don’t think we have any evidence this is happening.
We have at least some basic tools to detect account-creation and mass-voting. I don’t think the voting system is perfect, but at least on LW I would notice if someone was creating multiple accounts to vote, as I have noticed multiple times in the past.
A very valid concern. Thankfully, if I’m not mistaken, the moderators block troll votes (70% confidence) and have done so already in the past (50% confidence).