You can see our full reasoning here (and in the comments). In brief, we are worried about a way in which the voting structure on the Forum leads to more engagement with “Community” posts than users endorse, we’ve been hearing user feedback on related issues for a long time, and we’ve been having lots of conversations on hypotheses that we’d like to test.
I feel mixed about this.
On one hand, I log on to the forum and sometimes think “I’d rather not read about more drama”, or indeed “I keep getting sucked in by drama rather than cause prioritisation”. Really I just want to learn more rather than get sucked into debates about polycules and stuff.
On the other, if people are gravitating towards posts and discussion about the community, that’s telling you something about what matters to people and what is soaking up a lot of mental energy among the community. It means there’s an opportunity for (hopefully) progress to be made, when messages can land better, when it’s more acceptable to dissent; in large part spurred on by FTX fraud fallout.
I feel like this experiment is maybe not the best response to increased visceral dialogue about the community; it feels more like trying to package certain conversations in another space because XYZ reasons. I say XYZ reasons because the reasons themselves aren’t the important part; the important part is that the message latent in people’s behaviour isn’t being paid attention to.
It’s a human response, and it’s typically the response of very cerebral / less emotional people when there has been emotional trauma in a small group setting. But it isn’t necessarily the response which leads to the best results, as others feel silenced or that the opportunity for changing things for the better is being taken away.
Also I find the rationale here for removing community posts because they are intrinsically ones that everyone can grapple with wildly counterintuitive.
I feel mixed about this.
On one hand, I log on to the forum and sometimes think “I’d rather not read about more drama”, or indeed “I keep getting sucked in by drama rather than cause prioritisation”. Really I just want to learn more rather than get sucked into debates about polycules and stuff.
On the other, if people are gravitating towards posts and discussion about the community, that’s telling you something about what matters to people and what is soaking up a lot of mental energy among the community. It means there’s an opportunity for (hopefully) progress to be made, when messages can land better, when it’s more acceptable to dissent; in large part spurred on by FTX fraud fallout.
I feel like this experiment is maybe not the best response to increased visceral dialogue about the community; it feels more like trying to package certain conversations in another space because XYZ reasons. I say XYZ reasons because the reasons themselves aren’t the important part; the important part is that the message latent in people’s behaviour isn’t being paid attention to.
It’s a human response, and it’s typically the response of very cerebral / less emotional people when there has been emotional trauma in a small group setting. But it isn’t necessarily the response which leads to the best results, as others feel silenced or that the opportunity for changing things for the better is being taken away.
Also I find the rationale here for removing community posts because they are intrinsically ones that everyone can grapple with wildly counterintuitive.
While I like the change I think it papers over the cracks of us not being great at community sensemaking. I sense we agree.
I’m curious about the down-voting with out explanations as well, keen to hear why people disagree.