Regarding groups and events: The current feature is a prototype being tested by a few groups before we roll it out for everyone to use. But if all goes according to plan, the Forum will eventually be used by hundreds of groups to share their profiles and events, with many new features to help out.
Meanwhile, the current EA Hub list is easy to filter and mostly up-to-date (groups can update information themselves), and it’s heavily linked across the mainstream EA internet — hopefully, it’s pretty hard to miss, even if the current list is feature-light. This page is an above-the-fold Google result for “effective altruism group” and “effective altruism meetup”, so if someone knows that EA groups exist at all, I think they’ll find it. (And if they don’t, I’m not sure what a new resource would do.)
Also, if you want to get more feedback on questions like this, consider using EA Polls — the whole comment upvote/downvote thing seems to get less input than the average poll in that group.
So quick note on the forum experience here: - I spent 3-8 hours writing and redrafting a post - The post has recieved little karma so clearly people didn’t like it - A lot of people liked a critical comment which I guess implies they think that this isn’t a high priority issue - I have no feedback other than that - I feel hurt and a bit dumb
This is okay, I’m an adult. I can get over feeling a bit dumb. but sometimes I read that that we’d like more people to post on the forum. For me, this is why I don’t.
I don’t mind having written an article that people didn’t like, but I’d really appreciate some feedback. Having an article that languishes feels worse than people saying clearly what would have made them upvote.
Some closing thoughts: - I still think that a norm of allowing karma free comments would allow more feedback (“I don’t think this is high enough impact”, “I think this is a concern of only a few people” etc) - Perhaps people could give private feedback while an article is small. Maybe people didn’t want to hurt my feelings - Perhaps articles could be reset to draft. I imagine I’ll try and write a better version of this article at some point I still believe it to be true - It’s good that people don’t upvote articles they don’t like. While I feel a little bad at the moment it’s better than that the community gets recommended unsuitable articles.
I don’t want a response from you here Aaron, I just thought I’d allow others to see my experience in case they shared it.
A lot of people liked a critical comment which I guess implies they think that this isn’t a high priority issue
If you mean the comment I posted, I would like to clarify that it wasn’t meant as a critical comment, but rather as a weak consideration for thinking that this kind of project may not be as valuable as it may initially appear. My apologies for not communicating this more clearly.
Moreover, as you note in your reply, which received almost as many upvotes as my comment did, the case I discuss is different in some key respects from what you were proposing, so it’s unclear whether my experience should inform estimates about the value of that proposal.
Hey :) I don’t think critical is bad and I want peoples comments both in support and critical. Thanks for clarifying though, that’s kind of you.
I would label your comment as disagreeing with the thesis of the post and since it has more upvotes than the post, it suggests others agree with you. Now since we agree that the situations are a bit different I don’t quite know what people’s specific disagreement is. And that’s okay, people can do what they like, but it is disheartening to write an article, receive relatively little takeup, have people like a disagreeing comment more than that article and then not know why. Right?
Regarding groups and events: The current feature is a prototype being tested by a few groups before we roll it out for everyone to use. But if all goes according to plan, the Forum will eventually be used by hundreds of groups to share their profiles and events, with many new features to help out.
Meanwhile, the current EA Hub list is easy to filter and mostly up-to-date (groups can update information themselves), and it’s heavily linked across the mainstream EA internet — hopefully, it’s pretty hard to miss, even if the current list is feature-light. This page is an above-the-fold Google result for “effective altruism group” and “effective altruism meetup”, so if someone knows that EA groups exist at all, I think they’ll find it. (And if they don’t, I’m not sure what a new resource would do.)
Also, if you want to get more feedback on questions like this, consider using EA Polls — the whole comment upvote/downvote thing seems to get less input than the average poll in that group.
So quick note on the forum experience here:
- I spent 3-8 hours writing and redrafting a post
- The post has recieved little karma so clearly people didn’t like it
- A lot of people liked a critical comment which I guess implies they think that this isn’t a high priority issue
- I have no feedback other than that
- I feel hurt and a bit dumb
This is okay, I’m an adult. I can get over feeling a bit dumb. but sometimes I read that that we’d like more people to post on the forum. For me, this is why I don’t.
I don’t mind having written an article that people didn’t like, but I’d really appreciate some feedback. Having an article that languishes feels worse than people saying clearly what would have made them upvote.
Some closing thoughts:
- I still think that a norm of allowing karma free comments would allow more feedback (“I don’t think this is high enough impact”, “I think this is a concern of only a few people” etc)
- Perhaps people could give private feedback while an article is small. Maybe people didn’t want to hurt my feelings
- Perhaps articles could be reset to draft. I imagine I’ll try and write a better version of this article at some point I still believe it to be true
- It’s good that people don’t upvote articles they don’t like. While I feel a little bad at the moment it’s better than that the community gets recommended unsuitable articles.
I don’t want a response from you here Aaron, I just thought I’d allow others to see my experience in case they shared it.
If you mean the comment I posted, I would like to clarify that it wasn’t meant as a critical comment, but rather as a weak consideration for thinking that this kind of project may not be as valuable as it may initially appear. My apologies for not communicating this more clearly.
Moreover, as you note in your reply, which received almost as many upvotes as my comment did, the case I discuss is different in some key respects from what you were proposing, so it’s unclear whether my experience should inform estimates about the value of that proposal.
Hey :) I don’t think critical is bad and I want peoples comments both in support and critical. Thanks for clarifying though, that’s kind of you.
I would label your comment as disagreeing with the thesis of the post and since it has more upvotes than the post, it suggests others agree with you. Now since we agree that the situations are a bit different I don’t quite know what people’s specific disagreement is. And that’s okay, people can do what they like, but it is disheartening to write an article, receive relatively little takeup, have people like a disagreeing comment more than that article and then not know why. Right?