I appreciate the thoughtful reply. However, I don’t agree with 5, which I take to be the most important claim in this reply.
Side comment: my claim isn’t that moderators should avoid responding to posts that criticise prominent figures in EA. But my claim is that moderators should be cautious about acting in ways that discourage critique. I think this creates a sort of default presupposition that formal mod action should not be taken against critiques that include substantive discussion, as this one did.
I don’t particularly find the comparison to the “modest proposal” post fruitful, because the current post just seem like a very different categories of post. I think it’s perfectly possible to not take action on substantive criticisms of leaders while taking action on “modest proposal” style posts.
While it might be reasonable to want to discourage the sort of rhetorical attacks seen in this post if all else were equal, I don’t think all else was equal in this case. And while I agree that “criticism” of leaders shouldn’t permit all sins, the post seemed to me to have enough substantive discussion that it shouldn’t be grouped into the general category of “inflammatory and misleading”.
Writing only my personal perspective on the moderation team’s approach, I haven’t checked this with other moderators or advisors
my claim isn’t that moderators should avoid responding to posts that criticise prominent figures in EA. But my claim is that moderators should be cautious about acting in ways that discourage critique.
My view is that all moderators agree with this! There are just many reasonable places to draw this line, though, and both different users and different moderators have different preferences and perspectives on what the bar should be and what counts as “prominent figures in EA”.
In the past, we have received feedback from some users that we should have intervened in the opposite direction in other threads about prominent figures.
Also, just to say: I think these judgement calls are easy to make in the abstract, but I’m glad I don’t have to make them quickly in reality when they actually have implications.
I do think the wrong call was made here, but I also think the mod team acts in good faith and is careful and reflective in their actions. I am discussing things here because I think this is how we can collectively work towards a desirable set of moderation norms. I am not mentioning these things to criticise the mod team as individuals or indeed as a group.
I appreciate the thoughtful reply. However, I don’t agree with 5, which I take to be the most important claim in this reply.
Side comment: my claim isn’t that moderators should avoid responding to posts that criticise prominent figures in EA. But my claim is that moderators should be cautious about acting in ways that discourage critique. I think this creates a sort of default presupposition that formal mod action should not be taken against critiques that include substantive discussion, as this one did.
I don’t particularly find the comparison to the “modest proposal” post fruitful, because the current post just seem like a very different categories of post. I think it’s perfectly possible to not take action on substantive criticisms of leaders while taking action on “modest proposal” style posts.
While it might be reasonable to want to discourage the sort of rhetorical attacks seen in this post if all else were equal, I don’t think all else was equal in this case. And while I agree that “criticism” of leaders shouldn’t permit all sins, the post seemed to me to have enough substantive discussion that it shouldn’t be grouped into the general category of “inflammatory and misleading”.
Writing only my personal perspective on the moderation team’s approach, I haven’t checked this with other moderators or advisors
My view is that all moderators agree with this! There are just many reasonable places to draw this line, though, and both different users and different moderators have different preferences and perspectives on what the bar should be and what counts as “prominent figures in EA”.
In the past, we have received feedback from some users that we should have intervened in the opposite direction in other threads about prominent figures.
Also, just to say: I think these judgement calls are easy to make in the abstract, but I’m glad I don’t have to make them quickly in reality when they actually have implications.
I do think the wrong call was made here, but I also think the mod team acts in good faith and is careful and reflective in their actions. I am discussing things here because I think this is how we can collectively work towards a desirable set of moderation norms. I am not mentioning these things to criticise the mod team as individuals or indeed as a group.