I see where you’re coming from, but I can’t help but wonder if a more cheerful approach isn’t also possible and perhaps even more conducive to impact. Julia Wise’s thoughts in http://www.givinggladly.com/2013/06/cheerfully.html and also especially Nate Soares’ https://mindingourway.com/detach-the-grim-o-meter/ would perhaps go in that direction. Basically: Being grim kind of sucks long-term. And maybe being more positive will lead to more impact.
But without further empirical data this is just speculation on my part :P
(Just as a couple of thoughts that are better than my n=1: In community building the recommendation is opportunity, rather than obligation, framing, so it probably works better? I recall there also being some studies on advertisements with negative/positive/humorous tone, and the latter two had better effects. Probably low external validity though. Also, though, comedians like John Oliver probably have a much higher reach compared to the usual by just being, well, entertaining and fun.)
I am not completely sure on the emphasizing of the community building based on fun part - that might be what fundamentally I view differently on; I believe people should best be united by passion/values and the things to do, the other stuff seems a bit for entertaining/personal/socializing purposes (and harder to be unified on), less for “a community with a goal” type of organizations (which could def happen in smaller subsets/scale) - people who are passionate about the values will stick around anyways is my take/current thought
On being cheerful though- that part I agree. I like posts celebrating progress as well
Thanks both! Yeah I do think ultimately the goals of EA and the Forum are not “fun” per say, but hopefully we can still create a space that has positivity. And I think currently, when people write about good news or progress or celebrating success, they get a relatively large amount of karma.
I also agree that we don’t want the tone to be too grim, both because that’s probably bad for motivation, and because I think that can even skew the topics that get discussed in bad ways (like if discussions were all doomy). I think that the Forum could use more cheerful content on the margin. :)
I see where you’re coming from, but I can’t help but wonder if a more cheerful approach isn’t also possible and perhaps even more conducive to impact. Julia Wise’s thoughts in http://www.givinggladly.com/2013/06/cheerfully.html and also especially Nate Soares’ https://mindingourway.com/detach-the-grim-o-meter/ would perhaps go in that direction. Basically: Being grim kind of sucks long-term. And maybe being more positive will lead to more impact.
But without further empirical data this is just speculation on my part :P
(Just as a couple of thoughts that are better than my n=1: In community building the recommendation is opportunity, rather than obligation, framing, so it probably works better? I recall there also being some studies on advertisements with negative/positive/humorous tone, and the latter two had better effects. Probably low external validity though. Also, though, comedians like John Oliver probably have a much higher reach compared to the usual by just being, well, entertaining and fun.)
I am not completely sure on the emphasizing of the community building based on fun part - that might be what fundamentally I view differently on; I believe people should best be united by passion/values and the things to do, the other stuff seems a bit for entertaining/personal/socializing purposes (and harder to be unified on), less for “a community with a goal” type of organizations (which could def happen in smaller subsets/scale) - people who are passionate about the values will stick around anyways is my take/current thought
On being cheerful though- that part I agree. I like posts celebrating progress as well
Thanks both! Yeah I do think ultimately the goals of EA and the Forum are not “fun” per say, but hopefully we can still create a space that has positivity. And I think currently, when people write about good news or progress or celebrating success, they get a relatively large amount of karma.
I also agree that we don’t want the tone to be too grim, both because that’s probably bad for motivation, and because I think that can even skew the topics that get discussed in bad ways (like if discussions were all doomy). I think that the Forum could use more cheerful content on the margin. :)