I also noticed unorthodox voting patterns on this post—my first comment was downvoted the minute I posted it. But it doesn’t seem like many people would look at that criticism (polite, constructive, sent to the authors in advance) and think it should have negative karma. So basically, I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
I don’t know why sphor’s comment was downvoted (I’m also confused by that), but for Ryan’s, I can at least speak for myself of why I downvoted it:
I strongly disagree with the comment and think that
This sort of thinking is paralyzing for the EA movement and leads to way more potential founders giving up on ideas, bouncing from the EA movement, not posting on the Forum, or moving so slowly that a lot of impact is lost. (I might write a post about this because I think it’s important and neglected in the movement)
It derails the conversation on something I consider to be a small detail about an improbable small-downside outcome, and I wanted more people focusing on more fruitful potential criticisms or points about the prize.
While a lot of the comment was polite and constructive, it also said that we were being “shifty”, which felt unnecessarily accusatory. I think if that word was changed I would change it from a strong downvote to just a downvote
Of note, I just strongly disagree with this comment/idea. In general, I think Ryan is great and consider him a friend.
I also noticed unorthodox voting patterns on this post—my first comment was downvoted the minute I posted it. But it doesn’t seem like many people would look at that criticism (polite, constructive, sent to the authors in advance) and think it should have negative karma. So basically, I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
I don’t know why sphor’s comment was downvoted (I’m also confused by that), but for Ryan’s, I can at least speak for myself of why I downvoted it:
I strongly disagree with the comment and think that
This sort of thinking is paralyzing for the EA movement and leads to way more potential founders giving up on ideas, bouncing from the EA movement, not posting on the Forum, or moving so slowly that a lot of impact is lost. (I might write a post about this because I think it’s important and neglected in the movement)
It derails the conversation on something I consider to be a small detail about an improbable small-downside outcome, and I wanted more people focusing on more fruitful potential criticisms or points about the prize.
While a lot of the comment was polite and constructive, it also said that we were being “shifty”, which felt unnecessarily accusatory. I think if that word was changed I would change it from a strong downvote to just a downvote
Of note, I just strongly disagree with this comment/idea. In general, I think Ryan is great and consider him a friend.