I think this comment misses the point. The crux is not whether clickbait does in fact draw attention – the fact that clickbait works is precisely why we don't want it on the forum. We have a limited amount of attention to spend, and encouraging clickbait means necessarily drawing away attention from less-clickbaity posts.
"But if EAs only ever use factual, descriptive, neutral language in all forums, that's a strategic mistake, and hinders their ability to effectively communicate with the public."
I don't think the purpose of the EA forum is to communicate with the public.
Hi Danielle, welcome! I really enjoyed reading your blog post – it seems like you have a skill for communicating clearly, and I'd love to read more of your writing as you keep thinking more about EA :)
One thing you can do as you learn more is to try and crystallize what cruxes you have for your beliefs. Talking about cruxes is a common way EAs communicate, as it can help people avoid talking past each other and instead focus primarily on the things that would change each other's minds.
My take is that it's much more valuable to spend time early on thinking about your values and what you think the most important problems are, compared to finding an EA-relevant job quickly (because there are compelling cases for a lot of cause areas, and you might find that you change your mind about what path you want to pursue).
In terms of getting connected, you could try going to a meetup in your city (if there is one). Some people enjoy their city EA groups, others don't as much. EAGs and EAGx's can also be good places to meet people who share your interests. Yes, many groups use Facebook to coordinate, but I think there is less significant community discussion on FB than there used to be.
Ability to mute posts/comments from certain users.
I think this comment misses the point. The crux is not whether clickbait does in fact draw attention – the fact that clickbait works is precisely why we don't want it on the forum. We have a limited amount of attention to spend, and encouraging clickbait means necessarily drawing away attention from less-clickbaity posts.
I don't think the purpose of the EA forum is to communicate with the public.
Hi Danielle, welcome! I really enjoyed reading your blog post – it seems like you have a skill for communicating clearly, and I'd love to read more of your writing as you keep thinking more about EA :)
One thing you can do as you learn more is to try and crystallize what cruxes you have for your beliefs. Talking about cruxes is a common way EAs communicate, as it can help people avoid talking past each other and instead focus primarily on the things that would change each other's minds.
My take is that it's much more valuable to spend time early on thinking about your values and what you think the most important problems are, compared to finding an EA-relevant job quickly (because there are compelling cases for a lot of cause areas, and you might find that you change your mind about what path you want to pursue).
In terms of getting connected, you could try going to a meetup in your city (if there is one). Some people enjoy their city EA groups, others don't as much. EAGs and EAGx's can also be good places to meet people who share your interests. Yes, many groups use Facebook to coordinate, but I think there is less significant community discussion on FB than there used to be.
Hope this helps and good luck!
This seems like a really high impact opportunity, I hope that some talented people apply to this.