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> does she have nothing to gain in trying to convince her good friend Bob that he should stop binge-drinking? The solitary activity of comment writing on Reddi

> does she have nothing to gain in trying to convince her good friend Bob that he should stop binge-drinking? The solitary activity of comment writing on Reddit is an unusual way to let Bob, a good friend, know about his binge drinking. I wonder if the context of Reddit got lost somewhere along the way? It could be that social interaction brings additional value potential that would justify sharing formed opinions in a social setting, but that is beyond the topic being discussed here. > If you believe that a certain oppressive tyrant ought to be overthrown, then would you not try to convince other people of this, so that you can form a large enough conspiracy to carry out that goal? There are numerous subreddits claiming millions of users who appear, based on comments, to share a common political goal that goes against a status quo. The numbers are there. The will alleges to be there. Why haven't they already risen up and done something about what they are supposedly rallying around? Perhaps it is because the opinions they express are only being explored? And this speaks again to Reddit, and forum going in general, being a solitary activity. Realistically, there is little difference between Reddit and ChatGPT. You state your bit, maybe get a response back, and hope that response will contain some nuggets of wisdom from which you can derive some value. Possibly there are people on the other end writing those responses, but would it matter if there wasn't? The experience doesn't depend on it. If there are people, that's just an implementation detail. If you are hard-lined "binge drinking is bad for one's health" and nothing is going to change your mind about that fact, are you going to tell ChatGPT that? If not, why would you tell Reddit? What are you going to gain from it? Why would you waste your time? Indeed, if you are unsure, only postulating the opinion of binge drinking being harmful as something to explore, then the responses provide a learning opportunity. That brings value and can make it worth your time. > then is he really doing that for the sole purpose of probing for reasons why he shouldn't be voted into office? A hypothetical can only take us so far, but presumably the candidate hypothesizes that they can win on certain qualities, but they don't know for sure and are throwing it out there to try and find out. Once the vote is done, the results are in, and the outcome is known I suspect continued sharing of that opinion diminishes. What additional value would be gained in continuing to share it at that point?

LegionMammal978 3y ago
My apologies, you phrased your point so generally that I was under the impression you were talking about any form of online social media. > Why haven't they already risen up and done something about what they are supposedly rallying around? Perhaps it is because the opinions they express are only being explored? People are lazy, and turning public sentiment into a functioning movement is hard work. This does not stop the big political belief systems from including an evangelizing component, the idea that it would be best for as many people as possible to know about and be in support of the belief. Otherwise, they don't grow very big in the first place! > If you are hard-lined "binge drinking is bad for one's health" and nothing is going to change your mind about that fact, are you going to tell ChatGPT that? If not, why would you tell Reddit? What are you going to gain from it? Why would you waste your time? Indeed, if you are unsure, only postulating the opinion of binge drinking being harmful as something to explore, then the responses provide a learning opportunity. That brings value and can make it worth your time. My point is that someone might want fewer people getting harmed by binge drinking, even if the victims are complete strangers. So they post their earnest belief on Reddit that binge drinking is bad, backing it up with some reasoning, so that a few more people in the world might be convinced not to binge drink. That is, someone might feel some sense of pride when they help strangers by informing them of (what they see as) the truth, so they consider their time well spent. > A hypothetical can only take us so far, but presumably the candidate hypothesizes that they can win, but they don't know for sure and are throwing it out there to try and find out. Sure, the candidate doesn't know for sure that they'll win, but that's beside the point. Your idea would suggest that they aren't even sure if they want people to vote for them, and they only ask people to vote for them in order to probe for reasons why they shouldn't be voted for. I'm saying that they might earnestly want to win, so they campaign because they want to get as many votes as possible! Overall, it just seems like an incredible claim that no one ever posts strongly-held opinions on Reddit primarily because they want to convince others. There are all sorts of reasons why someone might want to convince people of things! Also, I really wouldn't discount the possibility of people who like talking in its own right, as a way to spend free time. Not everyone is looking to optimize every minute of their day being maximally profuctive.
- randomdata 3y ago

LegionMammal978 3y ago

My apologies, you phrased your point so generally that I was under the impression you were talking about any form of online social media. > Why haven't they already risen up and done something about what they are supposedly rallying around? Perhaps it is because the opinions they express are only being explored? People are lazy, and turning public sentiment into a functioning movement is hard work. This does not stop the big political belief systems from including an evangelizing component, the idea that it would be best for as many people as possible to know about and be in support of the belief. Otherwise, they don't grow very big in the first place! > If you are hard-lined "binge drinking is bad for one's health" and nothing is going to change your mind about that fact, are you going to tell ChatGPT that? If not, why would you tell Reddit? What are you going to gain from it? Why would you waste your time? Indeed, if you are unsure, only postulating the opinion of binge drinking being harmful as something to explore, then the responses provide a learning opportunity. That brings value and can make it worth your time. My point is that someone might want fewer people getting harmed by binge drinking, even if the victims are complete strangers. So they post their earnest belief on Reddit that binge drinking is bad, backing it up with some reasoning, so that a few more people in the world might be convinced not to binge drink. That is, someone might feel some sense of pride when they help strangers by informing them of (what they see as) the truth, so they consider their time well spent. > A hypothetical can only take us so far, but presumably the candidate hypothesizes that they can win, but they don't know for sure and are throwing it out there to try and find out. Sure, the candidate doesn't know for sure that they'll win, but that's beside the point. Your idea would suggest that they aren't even sure if they want people to vote for them, and they only ask people to vote for them in order to probe for reasons why they shouldn't be voted for. I'm saying that they might earnestly want to win, so they campaign because they want to get as many votes as possible! Overall, it just seems like an incredible claim that no one ever posts strongly-held opinions on Reddit primarily because they want to convince others. There are all sorts of reasons why someone might want to convince people of things! Also, I really wouldn't discount the possibility of people who like talking in its own right, as a way to spend free time. Not everyone is looking to optimize every minute of their day being maximally profuctive.

randomdata 3y ago