----- Original Message -----
From: "Anders Sandberg" <asa@nada.kth.se>
> I like Mark's suggestion for rating posts, but beside the
> thread-handling problem there are also issues of people just
> responding without changing the value and similar minor details.
This certainly would be a problem. I suspect that there would not be 100 %
compliance with the convention:
As you say, some would not change the E-value of the post where they should.
Also, I imagine that some may follow the convention but their judgment about
the appropriate E-value may radically out of whack. However, the convention
would still be useful if even a few of the regular posters with good
judgment used the rating system. It would allow one to follow the more
relevant threads and posts and ignore the others. Also, it is a way of
continually reinforcing the ideal of the list.
> Robert has some good points about the general problems with high
> volume forums, and I think it is worth considering if we could
> improve the list by some extra lists.
>
I think Robert's idea is worthy of consideration. Of course there are other
lists out there already. I suppose we need to ask ourselves what is it that
makes the Extropian list the worst transhumanist list besides all others. Of
course Robert's and my suggestions are quite compatible. Although,
personally I would like to see the list intact. There are so few of us
already.
> But these are all technical fixes, and while I like technical
> fixes as much as the next promethean god-wannabee :-) I think
> they will not solve the core problem. The core problem seems to
> be more of a social problem: the socialising crowds out the
> transhumanism, and the very open forum (and movement) while
> promoting diversity also promotes lack of focus and consensus.
>
Again, I guess we need to ask ourselves what the socializing component
brings to the list.What if much of the success of the list was due to this
socializing component? If memory serves, Anders said there was 31 reasonably
Extropian posts among 117. I subscribe to three other transhumanist type
lists, I am pretty sure that they did not have 31 posts among them
yesterday, never mind 31 reasonably transhumanist posts. I don't mind the
socializing aspect of this list sometimes, other times I am just too busy.
What we need is a system that will allow us to separate the 31 from the
rest. This way the socializing and the more serious purposes of the list may
peacefully co-exist. The system I have suggested may partly address this
problem. Mark
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:12 MDT