I conceive and build EA-aligned projects.
I’m also a crypto hobbyist and consultant.
I love to hang out at the intersection of EA and Blockchain :)
I believe in the power of DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations)
DAOMaximalist
Karma: 50
What was apparently a good intentioned move seems to be getting sidetracked by the majority of anonymous (and non anonymous) comments. Quite unfortunate.
Can’t we all just kiss and make up? We are supposed to be altruists, right? RIGHT???On a more serious note, I don’t personally know and have never worked personally with Kat or Emerson but I’ve been a member of one of the Nonlinear/Superlinear discords for some weeks now and have interacted with Drew and a few others and that place feels more or less like a family where everyone’s opinion is valued and respected.
They are very open, helpful and supportive people and one of the most welcoming of all the EA communities I’ve been in so far (I’m quite new to EA, about three months old in the community). I’ve never felt any negative vibes interacting with them and I am of the strong opinion that the work being done there is highly impactful and relevant to EA.
All the same I believe “there is no smoke without fire” as they say and I believe some kind of official investigation should be made into these allegations (if possible). But I don’t think this thread is the best place to discuss this issue as it distracts from the import of the original post (which would be beneficial to a lot of people in the community given the current situation of things).
The anonymous accuser should have created a different post and linked to it in a brief comment here for a more robust discussion of that issue without distracting from the original purpose of this thread.
And on the issue of forum voting, I think posters and commenters should NOT be able to vote on their own posts and comments. I believe the effects of being able to vote on one’s own post/comment are net negative.
It would be a great idea to enable it for all posts.
This forum has enough high quality scholarly content to qualify as an academic resource of note.There will not be any issue with the Google algorithm at all. In fact Google actively encourages using these metadata for websites with content like EA forum has. The algorithm will be able to decide what is relevant to it and will simply ignore the rest.
With respect to the names, that also would not be a problem. The only consequence is that Google will store and display search results using the names they used. So if anyone likes to have their article to be associated with their real name they will need to use the real name in their post.
There will not be any other impact.
Also: Just in case someone prefers not to have their forum post indexed by Google scholar, there are ways to remove indexed entries . But I have a feeling hardly anyone would opt for that.
On covert attack threats: This should be a very serious concern and is one of the main reasons why I suggested this project some weeks back (Note: See my #2 Item on this comment detailing reasons why such project is needed) but not many respondents seemed to think it important enough to support or comment on.
Spammers, Scammers and (Fake) Hackers Scraping Email Addresses from EA Forum?
Great list Drew. Big Thanks for sharing this.
I have read some books in the list but there are many others I haven’t read so I consider this a goldmine and I have since bookmarked the post.I also do have a few suggestions to add. Highly recommended.
Personal Development
Black Box Thinking: Why Most People Never Learn from Their Mistakes—But Some Do
Operations/Get Shit Done
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World (This one is a bit wordy especially if you don’t like stories so much, but lots of useful information lies within)
Bonus for those who like fiction (this one is fiction and not exactly related to business but ranks very high on my “list of books to read before you die” and I believe its a series everyone should try and read):
The Three Body Problem (Trilogy)Reminder that you can listen to LessWrong and EA Forum posts like this on your podcast player using the Nonlinear Library.
Love the podcast, comes in very handy in keeping up with developments on the forum. kudos to the team.
Yes it was in plaintext in a comment. They did not need to obtain privileged access to see it.
“Less wrong” is a broad term that could be read in various contexts outside of EA so there are likely other webpages which Google sees as more relevant for this term (more relevant than lesswrong.com )
It seems you are trying to get results from lesswrong.com that are indexed in Google scholar. If that is correct, I would suggest that you use the following search > site:lesswrong.com
Hi everyone!
I am a budding product designer for blockchain/web 3.0 projects who just recently discovered the Effective Altruism community.
Having done some work with Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), it has become clear to me that they could become a vital part of EA of the future because they can enhance transparency and governance of effective altruism communities and projects.
They can also help to scale projects and fundraising campaigns.
As a member here I hope to contribute content which aims to educate community members who are new to cryptocurrency and blockchain and also expand upon my thoughts on how blockchain technology can make EA even more effective and why we must pay attention to DAOs and Web3.
Fair enough!
Hey thanks a lot for the image tip and the link. It solved my problem.
Just in case anyone else is wondering how to include images in their posts, you can just drag and drop the image from your device into the post editor directly.
Thank you for the warm welcome, I’m glad to be here. And thank you for the suggestions.
Before I make my case for why I think this project is necessary (despite the existence of the EA Forum Question Feature), let me state that some of my points are not meant to belittle the work of the EA forum minders and the entire community.
I believe that EA Forum is very useful and great at fulfilling a number of purposes, but there are certain use cases where it falls short. In such cases, I believe a dedicated Question and Answer (Q and A) website would be better/more effective and will complement the EA Forum to yield greater efficiency.
Now, here are some reasons why a standalone Q and A website for the EA Community is necessary (I have some years experience in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and growing/managing online communities and my experience has shaped some of the points below):
1. EA Forum is Not Newbie—Friendly
Generally, EA seems to have a problem of not being very newbie friendly (see this thread where the issue was discussed to get a better appreciation of the matter).
By newbie I mean people who are totally new to EA (from diverse cultural, language and educational backgrounds).
My experience: I am currently trying to start a local EA group and I have had interactions with a number of people who have never heard about EA but have shown interest in learning more and becoming a part of the community. Initially, I would direct them to EA Forum if they asked me a question I couldn’t answer, but the feedback I kept getting from them was that the “ambience” and “vibe” given off by the discussions in EA Forum makes it feel like “a place for intellectuals and very smart people”.
Many newbies seem to be too intimidated or too scared to ask questions in the EA Forum because they are afraid of “sounding dumb” in the midst of all the scholarly articles and genius-level discussions taking place.
Unfortunately this same “vibe” is common to many EA online groups and communities.
There doesn’t seem to be a generally accepted and recognized place where “non-genius” EAs are not scared but comfortable (even encouraged) to ask apparently “dumb” questions or “silly” questions. Such a place seems to be in demand based on feedback from the newbies I have talked to and from comments I have repeatedly come across in various place online, even here on EA Forum.
This standalone Q and A website will be a less intimidating complement to the EA forum Question feature and would provide a space where EAs especially newbies will not hesitate to ask any questions they might have without fear of “sounding dumb”.
Some Newbies will ask questions that you never expect so this will enrich and diversify the conversations and better expose the community leaders to the thought processes and needs of these newbies and the community at large.
This will improve the onboarding (and retention) of new community members and help to keep the community strong.
2. To Counter Misleading Narratives about EA (via improved Search Engine Visibility)
Google is by far the largest search engine and most people seeking information online use it.
EA has had / continues to have a lot of bad press from critics and opponents. This is made worse by search results being filled with mostly negative posts regarding EA.
A google search of EA related phrases frequently turns up a plethora of negative and often downright misleading information about EA.
This seriously hurts the image of the community and can be a turn off for people who are thinking of joining and are doing research to learn more about effective altruism.
From my Search Engine Optimization (SEO) experience, Google appears to prioritize Q and A—type websites for searches that are phrased as questions thereby ranking them higher in the results.
There are also other factors that will favor a dedicated Q and A site in the search rankings therefore by ranking top for most of these common questions, the EA Community will be able to “influence the narrative” and counter this negative image.
(Results from EA forum also show up frequently but in many cases they are drowned in a sea of negative results.)
Still on EA’s image:
The EA forum appears (or seems to appear) to be a place meant for people already part of the community. People outside the EA community typically don’t post here. In many (most?) cases, such questions may end up on “non-EA-friendly” websites where they might receive a lot of negativity without any strong pro-EA voice to counterbalance the conversation. Having a Q and A website that encourages anybody (EAs and non-EAs) to ask questions will provide a great place to capture some of these questions (that would have gone to other websites) and counter or clarify false and negative narratives about EA.
3. Data and Statistics
For example: What are the most common question newbies in EA have? What are the most frequent challenges EAs generally face, what about those living in a particular country? Being able to provide answers to such questions will help to improve the onboarding process and get new members informed and aligned with the goals and ideals of the EA community.
This type of data cannot (readily) be obtained from the EA Question system but can easily be obtained with this Q and A website.
This data can also be used to improve EA community building and management processes and procedures for better efficiency.
The Q and A site can be used as an additional feedback mechanism to gauge the effectiveness of various EA procedures/policies/initiatives/etc by monitoring the types of questions being asked.
4. A (Very) Useful Resource for Community Leaders
This will be a really useful resource for many community leaders trying to onboard new EAs. It will make their jobs easier and save them time because they don’t need to repeatedly answer common “dumb” questions from newbies, they can just point them to the Q and A website and EA Forum so that they can ask their question wherever they feel most comfortable asking. This will save community leaders time that can then be used for other important things. Also community leaders will not have to go through my experience described earlier where newbies complained that they were sacred of posting in EA forum.
Budget Overview
TOTAL: $21,000
This budget is meant to cover web hosting costs, software licenses and software services subscriptions and remuneration for the development (dev) team. The project will require hiring one full time developer and one part time developer to make up the dev team.
Breakdown (figures rounded to the nearest hundred):
Web hosting + security, CDN etc for two years: $2,900
Software/SAAS licenses/subscriptions for three years: $2,200
Full Time Dev Salary ($3,800 per month for three months)
Part Time Dev Salary ($1,500 per month for three months)
Milestones / Deliverables:
End of month one: User Interface prototype wireframes / user flow diagrams
End of month two: Demo Alpha version with few rudimentary features
End of month three: Complete production-ready Beta version hosted and ready for public Beta test
Beta will last for one month then final launch.
Ongoing maintenance after the Beta will be handled by unpaid volunteers until we are able to hire a full time admin for the website.
After the Launch, What Next?
If there happens to be any leftover funds it will be used to run online ads to get some traction for the website. But success of the project in the long term will require serious and continuous promotional, marketing and SEO campaigns.
Where can one find a PDF download of this handbook? That would be helpful for those who cannot always be online.
Great resource. Would be quite helpful to me.
If you don’t mind I will like to suggest that you could maybe create a post on the site describing what the tool is and how to use it.
Right now, it shows “There’s nothing here!” below the links. If you make a post I think it will show up there on the front page instead of “There’s nothing here!”.
It will also give some context to people who stumble on the site without any previous knowledge of it, and will help in your SEO too (to get organic visitor traffic from Google search).
Well done, nonetheless. Thanks for the effort and time put in and thanks for sharing.
I just posted the update that contains much more details about my plans including the answer to your question. I hope you can find the time to go through the whole thing here.
But I will reproduce below the section of the update that directly answers your question. Bear in mind that I have many ideas but I don’t have all the ideas and I’m very open to suggestions:
Proposed Fundraising StrategiesThe initial funds will be raised through sales of Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
These NFTs will also act as membership passes to the DAO’s private communication, collaboration and voting platforms. Ideally one member per NFT.
In addition to NFT sales, some of the other fundraising strategies that shall be employed or experimented with include:
Conventional fundraising events like fundraising dinners/concerts/charity balls etc held once every quarter (preceded by two weeks of dedicated viral fundraising activities)
“Fundraising fortnights” which are two week sprints (done once every month or every two months) dedicated to widespread viral fundraising drives
Members leveraging their personal and professional networks to reach out to prospective donors and pitch the DAO to them
Individual members and small teams organizing micro-fundraising events, activities and activations
“Decentralized crowdfunding” where individual members initiate crowdfunding campaigns on their own to raise funds for the DAO
Developing the project’s Intellectual Property into revenue-generating books, comics, cartoons, movies, merchandise etc
Developing DAO-owned revenue-generating fundraising apps and low-maintenance charity entrepreneurship online platforms, startups, SAAS applications etc
Continuously reaching out and encouraging donors to commit to regular/repeat donations
DAO members brainstorming and exploring various other fundraising ideas.
Donations from DAO members
I think one critical difference is that EA funds is not subject to approval, control or oversight of the “EA Community”, In other words, it is not the EA Community’s funds. Anyway I’m sure things will become clearer with the next update.
Seeking Funding for a Question & Answer Website for EA
I actually consider every mistake as an opportunity to learn and I value every kind of feedback because it helps me to improve.
Also nobody knows everything or as someone once said “I know a lot of things about a lot of things. But I don’t know as much about a lot of other things that I wish I knew a lot of things about.”
I always take every opportunity to learn from others because I believe it’s the fastest way to improve.
Wish I could have someone with your kind of insights on this team, that would really be useful.
All the same I very much appreciate the time you took to read the article and offer your feedback.
If my attempt at this DAO fails, I’ll probably come crawling to you for some tips on how to do it
differentlybetter.But right now the ball is already rolling, I’m already promoting the NFT auction everywhere and the outcome of the auction will determine my next move.
Fingers crossed...
Hello Lorenzo
(This is a copy paste of my response to your similar comment on the other article)
It is great that this notice is being given but I believe those reports are not proven although I’m not sure of their content.
it would only be fair if I at least am given an opportunity to redeem my self, given that these “reports” are obviously just assumptions and not proven facts.There were a couple of issues raised in the comments which I tried to address and in places where I fell short, especially in the area of my identity, I offered to do KYC if need me to prove my authenticity.
Putting out such a notice without concrete verification already biases opinion against me. So even if the reports are unproven suspicions, some people might lean towards them being correct.
If anybody cares, I would love to prove my authenticity in any way required. Perhaps the mod that posted this could investigate further.
All I’ve wanted to do since I joined this community was to contribute meaningfully but every where I turn I seem to be met with lots of push back and vitriol and its not fair receiving this sort of treatment. The fact that I use a pseudonym doesn’t equate to being a scam. This is very disheartening to say the least.
I still have some updates but I wonder how I can keep posting with this sort of notice hanging over my reputation.
Hello Lorenzo
It is great that this notice is being given but I believe those reports are not proven although I’m not sure of their content.
it would only be fair if I at least am given an opportunity to redeem my self, given that these “reports” are obviously just assumptions and not proven facts.There were a couple of issues raised in the comments which I tried to address and in places where I fell short, especially in the area of my identity, I offered to do KYC if need me to prove my authenticity.
Putting out such a notice without concrete verification already biases opinion against me. So even if the reports are unproven suspicions, some people might lean towards them being correct.
If anybody cares, I would love to prove my authenticity in any way required. Perhaps the mod that posted this could investigate further.
All I’ve wanted to do since I joined this community was to contribute meaningfully but every where I turn I seem to be met with lots of push back and vitriol and its not fair receiving this sort of treatment. The fact that I use a pseudonym doesn’t equate to being a scam. This is very disheartening to say the least.
I still have some updates but I wonder how I can keep posting with this sort of notice hanging over my reputation.
I have much experience in Search Engine Optimization and I can venture an explanation for what is most likely going on here:
Google’s algorithm can understand when an article is scholarly in nature and then it might add it to Google Scholar results where there are no better matches for the term you are searching for.
However, if the titles and other details are not manually added to Google Scholar, they are automatically extracted (or inferred) from the sourcecode of the page. And if they are not fully optimized for Academic search, they may not display the correct data like correct titles etc
For the correct titles to show, one of two things needs to be done:
1. Article is added manually to Google Scholar (During manual submission to Google Scholar, you will be asked to specify the title, author and other metadata which are then used when displaying or listing it in search results.)
OR
2. Academic related tags are added to EA Forum articles. This can only be implemented by the site devs at the code level so that each article created automatically contains the following meta tags in its head section:
citation_title: To specify the article title to use for Google scholar and similar websites. This can be set to use the article’s correct title from the main <title> tag of the html head section. Same for the others below
citation_author: To specify the author (s)
citation_publication_date: To specify the Publication date
There are a number of other tags and even other standards and formats.
You can learn more about all this stuff from the below links (it’s sometimes called Academic Search Engine Optimization or ASEO):
https://www.brainlabsdigital.com/blog/google-scholar-seo/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/200610396_Academic_Search_Engine_Optimization_ASEO_Optimizing_Scholarly_Literature_for_Google_Scholar_Co
On why certain articles come up high in the Google Scholar results even when they don’t seem very relevant to the search:
A huge factor for ranking articles on Google scholar is the number of citations the article has. Google counts links to an article as citations so my guess would be that the top article in your search probably has more links to it from other websites. There is much more to this (such as quality of linking sites, search term density in the article and lots more) but I’m just trying to greatly simplify my explanation.
Tip: To see all the EA Forum results currently indexed on Google scholar, search with this term on Google Scholar (without the quotes).
“site:forum.effectivealtruism.org”
Right now it shows that there are only about 48 links from EA Forum indexed on Google scholar.
Aside: I wanted to upload a screenshot to this post but I can’t for the life of me figure out how to upload images to a post here. I feel its painfully obvious but I just cant figure out how. The embed settings do not include an image embed icon. How does one add an image in an article on EA Forum. How did you add the screenshot in your original post? Pray please tell...