To add another datapoint, a lot of my trust comes from :
Stories from more engaged EAs about difficult trade-offs or considerations made my EA leaders / orgs (which were not available publicly—often personal interactions, semi-private facebook discussions, or just observations of behavior over time which are hard to absorb coming in new to a community)
This is also not scalable, not accessible to people without networks, and not very reliable (e.g. what if my friend misremembered some facts over the years? or had gaps in their knowledge?)
Personal experiences with mostly people i consider friends, but also people i have worked with and developed professional working relationships with (many friendships have come out of working relationships)
To add another datapoint, a lot of my trust comes from :
Stories from more engaged EAs about difficult trade-offs or considerations made my EA leaders / orgs (which were not available publicly—often personal interactions, semi-private facebook discussions, or just observations of behavior over time which are hard to absorb coming in new to a community)
This is also not scalable, not accessible to people without networks, and not very reliable (e.g. what if my friend misremembered some facts over the years? or had gaps in their knowledge?)
Personal experiences with mostly people i consider friends, but also people i have worked with and developed professional working relationships with (many friendships have come out of working relationships)