I’m not convinced it would be net positive this time in the absence of several less well-known people expressing intent to post and preference for a special setup. I think there would be some downsides to each way the idea could be implemented a few days prior to start, so I’d wanted to see specific evidence that less well-known people would be more likely to post before endorsing a special setup this time.
Documenting the vision, my theory was that setting aside time for lesser-known voices (which basically means asking the well-known voices not to post at certain times) would mitigate concerns by less well-known voices that their contributions would “be completely steamrolled by a flurry of posts by people with higher status.” (quoting Jacob, the original commenter above).
I agree that the effects here shake out in different directions—though I hypothesize that the positive effect on a engagement with a given post comes more from general awareness of something bringing people to the Forum (e.g., there’s a new scandal, it’s Strategy Fortnight, etc.). In contrast, I speculate that the negative “cannibalizing” effect comes more from specific posts (look, there are fresh posts by X, Y, and Z with active engagement). Thus, I speculate that—by judicious management of post timing—we could capture much of the positive effect of the special event bringing in readers while mitigating the effect of prominent voices crowding other voices out. Of course, I could be wrong!
After thinking about it some more, it would probably be best to set aside space for lesser-known voices either at the beginning of an event or in a multi-day interlude in the middle of the event. Setting aside time at the very end of the event risks people having already had their fill of strategy talk; setting random days aside offers relatively limited isolation. However, most people who just learned about Strategy Fortnight wouldn’t be ready to publish in the first few days, and I think it’s too late to ask people who have already agreed to write for the event not to publish their post for a multi-day period.
So I think the best ways to test/implement the idea are off the table for this go-round.
I’m not convinced it would be net positive this time in the absence of several less well-known people expressing intent to post and preference for a special setup. I think there would be some downsides to each way the idea could be implemented a few days prior to start, so I’d wanted to see specific evidence that less well-known people would be more likely to post before endorsing a special setup this time.
Documenting the vision, my theory was that setting aside time for lesser-known voices (which basically means asking the well-known voices not to post at certain times) would mitigate concerns by less well-known voices that their contributions would “be completely steamrolled by a flurry of posts by people with higher status.” (quoting Jacob, the original commenter above).
I agree that the effects here shake out in different directions—though I hypothesize that the positive effect on a engagement with a given post comes more from general awareness of something bringing people to the Forum (e.g., there’s a new scandal, it’s Strategy Fortnight, etc.). In contrast, I speculate that the negative “cannibalizing” effect comes more from specific posts (look, there are fresh posts by X, Y, and Z with active engagement). Thus, I speculate that—by judicious management of post timing—we could capture much of the positive effect of the special event bringing in readers while mitigating the effect of prominent voices crowding other voices out. Of course, I could be wrong!
After thinking about it some more, it would probably be best to set aside space for lesser-known voices either at the beginning of an event or in a multi-day interlude in the middle of the event. Setting aside time at the very end of the event risks people having already had their fill of strategy talk; setting random days aside offers relatively limited isolation. However, most people who just learned about Strategy Fortnight wouldn’t be ready to publish in the first few days, and I think it’s too late to ask people who have already agreed to write for the event not to publish their post for a multi-day period.
So I think the best ways to test/implement the idea are off the table for this go-round.