I’d say it belongs in the former because it strongly “flatters a large share of readers.” Namely, by saying they are better than most other people =P Of course, that’s a controversial form of flattering, which is why the 79% upvote makes sense.
I wouldn’t expect my “running fundraisers for weird charities” post to be seen as weird by the standards of most EAs that I know, make me look like a jerk, or make any readers feel bad about themselves.
The post arguing that EA should be “elitist” got lots of upvotes, even though it presumably belongs in the latter category.
I’d say it belongs in the former because it strongly “flatters a large share of readers.” Namely, by saying they are better than most other people =P Of course, that’s a controversial form of flattering, which is why the 79% upvote makes sense.
This does somewhat conflict with my theory, though 12 points and 83% positive is small relative to the most popular posts I’m referring to.
Another datapoint going against the theory is this post encouraging running fundraisers for weird charities.
Your own post about CS majors goes in the “weird” category for me and got plenty of upvotes.
I wouldn’t expect my “running fundraisers for weird charities” post to be seen as weird by the standards of most EAs that I know, make me look like a jerk, or make any readers feel bad about themselves.
I think your post fits the point of “We should be fine with being weird because that’s the only way to find the most unreasonably neglected projects.”