I agree that this is a problem though I’m unsure how to solve it (or whether that’s even possible).
(The following is only tangentially related to the issue at hand.)
A related but broader problem I have with the EA forum is that it tends to incentivize participating in the discussion immediately, rather than taking a couple of days or weeks of reflection before contributing one’s point of view. (Needless to say, the EA forum scores much much better on this dimension than most of the rest of planet, especially Twitter.)
To give a concrete example of what I have in mind: Comments that were published on the same day as a given post often receive much more engagement than comments published a week later or so. One feels pressure to read the EA forum every day and comment on a post as soon as possible. I don’t think this sense of urgency is ideal for fostering discussions guided by reflection, nuance, and scholarship. (Of course, there are also downsides to always taking your sweet time and not being “up to date”.)
Again, all of this is probably unavoidable to a large extent but perhaps there are clever improvements to be made here. For example, perhaps comments on older posts could receive some sort of visibility boost.
I wonder if a degree of randomization would help. Instead of showing the top 10 posts on the front page, show a new sample of the top 50 to each user. Then the bonus given to new posts could shrink, and there would be more nudges to continue engaging with something over the course of a week or month.
I agree that this is a problem though I’m unsure how to solve it (or whether that’s even possible).
(The following is only tangentially related to the issue at hand.)
A related but broader problem I have with the EA forum is that it tends to incentivize participating in the discussion immediately, rather than taking a couple of days or weeks of reflection before contributing one’s point of view. (Needless to say, the EA forum scores much much better on this dimension than most of the rest of planet, especially Twitter.)
To give a concrete example of what I have in mind: Comments that were published on the same day as a given post often receive much more engagement than comments published a week later or so. One feels pressure to read the EA forum every day and comment on a post as soon as possible. I don’t think this sense of urgency is ideal for fostering discussions guided by reflection, nuance, and scholarship. (Of course, there are also downsides to always taking your sweet time and not being “up to date”.)
Again, all of this is probably unavoidable to a large extent but perhaps there are clever improvements to be made here. For example, perhaps comments on older posts could receive some sort of visibility boost.
Somewhat related is also Against News by Hanson.
I wonder if a degree of randomization would help. Instead of showing the top 10 posts on the front page, show a new sample of the top 50 to each user. Then the bonus given to new posts could shrink, and there would be more nudges to continue engaging with something over the course of a week or month.