Does sharing personal experiences that contribute to better guidelines about whether to pursue direct work, or counterbalancing an excessive emphasis on work at an EA organization, not further the objectives of EA? It’s certainly at a more meta level, but hey, meta EA is still one of the “four cause areas” and one of the EA Funds. I’m not saying it necessarily is more valuable than the winners of the prize, but I don’t think it should disqualified on that basis.
I also don’t think we should shy away from incentivizing posts that reflect disagreements within EA or are critical of EA as it is. That’s not too far off from disincentivizing disagreement (something like if you write about that topic you have zero chance of winning the prize), and that feels wrong on an open forum.
EA Forum content generally considered most valuable tends to be the kind that advances the objectives of one or more of EA’s cause areas, or the philosophy of the movement in general. Content focused on EA itself as a social community is a different kind of content that is typically related as less valuable. I think this judgement can be inferred from what articles tend to win the EA Forum Prizes. The sticking point is that this post is perceived as a particularly valuable example (perhaps the most valuable example) among a kind of post that are generally regarded as less valuable.
Of course the post in question advances the objectives of EA. At least in the evaluation of the judges, a handful of other posts this month were more valuable still. It wasn’t disqualified.
Whether by coincidence of typically being on the topic of ‘community,’ or another reason, I agree we should neither shy away from incentivize posts that reflect disagreements in EA, or are critical of EA as it is; nor directly disincentivize disagreement. I do believe there is a tendency towards that. While I am wary of incentivizing discussion of disagreement for its own sake, since that could introduce the perverse incentives of people posting articles that don’t do the disagreement justice, overall I believe it’s fairly achievable.
I’ve got a lot on my plate, and it is also not as much a personal priority for me in EA, so I wouldn’t do it, but I would recommend you (or someone else concerned) write an EA Forum article discussing what you think the criteria or priorities should be for the EA Forum Prizes, relative to the kinds of articles that win the prize now, and in particular why it is important they should include incentivizing high-quality treatments of critical disagreements in EA. I would be willing to proofread or otherwise aid in writing the article.
All of the topics you discussed are indeed useful, and posts about them are eligible for the Prize. The only non-eligible posts are those written by voters or those that come from CEA.
I hope that “being in the 97% of posts that don’t win a prize this time around” isn’t a major disinc, and I think it would be disingenuous to specifically favor critical pieces in the voting process. For now, we’re doing a really hands-off process with no formal guidelines for voters, which has led to a mix of research and meta posts winning the prize, some of which contained direct criticism of EA organizations and charity recommendations.
Does sharing personal experiences that contribute to better guidelines about whether to pursue direct work, or counterbalancing an excessive emphasis on work at an EA organization, not further the objectives of EA? It’s certainly at a more meta level, but hey, meta EA is still one of the “four cause areas” and one of the EA Funds. I’m not saying it necessarily is more valuable than the winners of the prize, but I don’t think it should disqualified on that basis.
I also don’t think we should shy away from incentivizing posts that reflect disagreements within EA or are critical of EA as it is. That’s not too far off from disincentivizing disagreement (something like if you write about that topic you have zero chance of winning the prize), and that feels wrong on an open forum.
EA Forum content generally considered most valuable tends to be the kind that advances the objectives of one or more of EA’s cause areas, or the philosophy of the movement in general. Content focused on EA itself as a social community is a different kind of content that is typically related as less valuable. I think this judgement can be inferred from what articles tend to win the EA Forum Prizes. The sticking point is that this post is perceived as a particularly valuable example (perhaps the most valuable example) among a kind of post that are generally regarded as less valuable.
Of course the post in question advances the objectives of EA. At least in the evaluation of the judges, a handful of other posts this month were more valuable still. It wasn’t disqualified.
Whether by coincidence of typically being on the topic of ‘community,’ or another reason, I agree we should neither shy away from incentivize posts that reflect disagreements in EA, or are critical of EA as it is; nor directly disincentivize disagreement. I do believe there is a tendency towards that. While I am wary of incentivizing discussion of disagreement for its own sake, since that could introduce the perverse incentives of people posting articles that don’t do the disagreement justice, overall I believe it’s fairly achievable.
I’ve got a lot on my plate, and it is also not as much a personal priority for me in EA, so I wouldn’t do it, but I would recommend you (or someone else concerned) write an EA Forum article discussing what you think the criteria or priorities should be for the EA Forum Prizes, relative to the kinds of articles that win the prize now, and in particular why it is important they should include incentivizing high-quality treatments of critical disagreements in EA. I would be willing to proofread or otherwise aid in writing the article.
Makes sense. FYI, I’m not currently interested in writing such a post, so if anyone else wants to, please do!
All of the topics you discussed are indeed useful, and posts about them are eligible for the Prize. The only non-eligible posts are those written by voters or those that come from CEA.
I hope that “being in the 97% of posts that don’t win a prize this time around” isn’t a major disinc, and I think it would be disingenuous to specifically favor critical pieces in the voting process. For now, we’re doing a really hands-off process with no formal guidelines for voters, which has led to a mix of research and meta posts winning the prize, some of which contained direct criticism of EA organizations and charity recommendations.