Slate Star Codex: The Slow and Painful Death of Online Discussions

Likes, Going Viral and Goodhart's Law

A couple of weeks ago, on the Arkansas subreddit, I saw a discussion of the events of January 6th, 2021. Whether you consider the events of that day an attempted coup, election interference, a riot, or something else does not matter to me. I have no interest in tussling with anyone online over that topic.

What caught my eye was that someone posting a min…