I’ve spent some time thinking and investigating what the current state of affairs is, and here’s my conclusions:
I’ve been reading through PineappleFund’s comments. Many are responses to solicitations for specific charities with him endorsing them as possibilities. One of these was for SENS foundation. Matthew_Barnett suggested that this is evidence that he particularly cares about long-term future causes, but given the diversity of other causes he endorsed I think it is pretty weak evidence.
They haven’t yet commented on any of the subthreads specifically discussing EA. However, these subthreads are high up on the Reddit sorting algorithm and have many comments endorsing EA. This is already a good position and is difficult to improve: They either like what they see or they don’t. It may be better if the top-level comments explicitly described and linked to a specific charity since that is what they responded well to in other comments, but I am cautious about making such surface-level generalizations which might have more to do with the distribution of existing comments than PineappleFund’s tendencies.
Keep in mind that soliciting upvotes for a comment is explicitly against Reddit rules. I understand if you think that the stakes of this situation are more important than these rules, but be sure you are consciously aware of the judgment you have made.
Keep in mind that soliciting upvotes for a comment is explicitly against Reddit rules. I understand if you think that the stakes of this situation are more important than these rules, but be sure you are consciously aware of the judgment you have made.
I’d say our policy should be ‘just don’t do that.’ EA has learned its lesson on this from GiveWell.
Because we believe that trust, cooperation, and accurate information are essential to doing good, we strive to be honest and trustworthy. More broadly, we strive to follow those rules of good conduct that allow communities (and the people within them) to thrive. We also value the reputation of effective altruism, and recognize that our actions reflect on it.
Indeed, maybe I should made the point more harshly. To be clear, that comment is not about something people might do, it’s about what’s already present in the top post, which I see as breaking the Reddit rules.
I used soft language because I was worried about EA discussions breaking into arguments whenever someone suggests a good thing to do, and was worried that I might have erred too much in the other direction in other contexts. I still don’t feel I have a good intuition on how confrontational I should be.
I think it was an understandable first thought for someone who didn’t know those rules, and Dony shouldn’t be castigated for not knowing about them in a useful post about an important topic. But I think we should be definite about not violating the rules (e.g. by editing the post) now that everyone involved knows about them, while pursuing Dony’s other good ideas.
Keep in mind that soliciting upvotes for a comment is explicitly against Reddit rules. I understand if you think that the stakes of this situation are more important than these rules, but be sure you are consciously aware of the judgment you have made.
Oh dear! No, I didn’t explicitly realize this beyond passing thoughts. In retrospect, I’m confused why this wasn’t cached in my mind as being against reddiquette. I should eat my own dogfood regarding brigading. I edited it so it’s not soliciting. Let me know here or privately if there are any further fixes I should make to the post (i.e. if I should just remove the links to the known EA comments).
I’ve spent some time thinking and investigating what the current state of affairs is, and here’s my conclusions:
I’ve been reading through PineappleFund’s comments. Many are responses to solicitations for specific charities with him endorsing them as possibilities. One of these was for SENS foundation. Matthew_Barnett suggested that this is evidence that he particularly cares about long-term future causes, but given the diversity of other causes he endorsed I think it is pretty weak evidence.
They haven’t yet commented on any of the subthreads specifically discussing EA. However, these subthreads are high up on the Reddit sorting algorithm and have many comments endorsing EA. This is already a good position and is difficult to improve: They either like what they see or they don’t. It may be better if the top-level comments explicitly described and linked to a specific charity since that is what they responded well to in other comments, but I am cautious about making such surface-level generalizations which might have more to do with the distribution of existing comments than PineappleFund’s tendencies.
Keep in mind that soliciting upvotes for a comment is explicitly against Reddit rules. I understand if you think that the stakes of this situation are more important than these rules, but be sure you are consciously aware of the judgment you have made.
I’d say our policy should be ‘just don’t do that.’ EA has learned its lesson on this from GiveWell.
Also:
Indeed, maybe I should made the point more harshly. To be clear, that comment is not about something people might do, it’s about what’s already present in the top post, which I see as breaking the Reddit rules.
I used soft language because I was worried about EA discussions breaking into arguments whenever someone suggests a good thing to do, and was worried that I might have erred too much in the other direction in other contexts. I still don’t feel I have a good intuition on how confrontational I should be.
I think it was an understandable first thought for someone who didn’t know those rules, and Dony shouldn’t be castigated for not knowing about them in a useful post about an important topic. But I think we should be definite about not violating the rules (e.g. by editing the post) now that everyone involved knows about them, while pursuing Dony’s other good ideas.
Oh dear! No, I didn’t explicitly realize this beyond passing thoughts. In retrospect, I’m confused why this wasn’t cached in my mind as being against reddiquette. I should eat my own dogfood regarding brigading. I edited it so it’s not soliciting. Let me know here or privately if there are any further fixes I should make to the post (i.e. if I should just remove the links to the known EA comments).