PS For the people downvoting and disagree-voting on my comment here:
I raised some awkward questions, without offering any answers, conclusions, or recommendations.
Are you disagreeing that it’s even legitimate to raise any issues about the ethics of ‘whistleblower’ anonymity in cases of potential false allegations?
I’d really like to understand what you’re disagreeing about here.
I think the questions you’re raising are important. I got kind of triggered by the issue I pointed out (and the fact that it’s something that has already been discussed in the comments of the other post), so I downvoted the comment overall. (Also, just because Chloe is currently anonymous doesn’t mean it’s risk-free to imply misleading and damaging things about her – anonymity can be fragile.)
There were many parts of your comment that I agree with. I agree that we probably shouldn’t have a norm that guarantees anonymity unconditionally. (But the anonymity protection needs to be strong enough that, if someone temporarily riles up public sentiment against the whistleblowers, people won’t jump to de-anonymizing [or to other, perhaps more targeted/discreet appropriate measures, such as the one suggested by Ivy here] too quickly; instead, the process there should be diligent and fair as well, just like an initial investigation prompted by the whistleblowers should be. (Not saying that this contradicts any of what you were suggesting!)
When things get heated and people downvote each others comments, it might be good to focus on things we do (probably) agree on. As I said on the Lesswrong version of this post:
Here are the list of values that are important to me about this whole affair and context:
I want whistleblower-type stuff to come to light because I think the damage bad leaders can do is often very large
I want investigations to be fair. In many cases, this means giving accused parties time to respond
I understand that there’s a phenotype of personality where someone has a habit of bad-talking others through false/misleading/distorted claims, and I think investigations (and analysis) should be aware of that
(FWIW, I assume that most people who vehemently disagree with me about some of the things I say in this comment and elsewhere would still endorse these above values.)
I raised some awkward questions, without offering any answers, conclusions, or recommendations.
I don’t feel like you raised discussion with no preference for what the community decided. When I gave my answer, which many people seem to agree with, your response was to question whether that’s REALLY what the EA community wants. I think it’s a bit disingenuous to suggest that you’re just asking a question when you clearly have a preference for how people answer!
PS For the people downvoting and disagree-voting on my comment here:
I raised some awkward questions, without offering any answers, conclusions, or recommendations.
Are you disagreeing that it’s even legitimate to raise any issues about the ethics of ‘whistleblower’ anonymity in cases of potential false allegations?
I’d really like to understand what you’re disagreeing about here.
I think the questions you’re raising are important. I got kind of triggered by the issue I pointed out (and the fact that it’s something that has already been discussed in the comments of the other post), so I downvoted the comment overall. (Also, just because Chloe is currently anonymous doesn’t mean it’s risk-free to imply misleading and damaging things about her – anonymity can be fragile.)
There were many parts of your comment that I agree with. I agree that we probably shouldn’t have a norm that guarantees anonymity unconditionally. (But the anonymity protection needs to be strong enough that, if someone temporarily riles up public sentiment against the whistleblowers, people won’t jump to de-anonymizing [or to other, perhaps more targeted/discreet appropriate measures, such as the one suggested by Ivy here] too quickly; instead, the process there should be diligent and fair as well, just like an initial investigation prompted by the whistleblowers should be. (Not saying that this contradicts any of what you were suggesting!)
When things get heated and people downvote each others comments, it might be good to focus on things we do (probably) agree on. As I said on the Lesswrong version of this post:
I don’t feel like you raised discussion with no preference for what the community decided. When I gave my answer, which many people seem to agree with, your response was to question whether that’s REALLY what the EA community wants. I think it’s a bit disingenuous to suggest that you’re just asking a question when you clearly have a preference for how people answer!
I disagree-voted because your first paragraph praised the OP.