"Manifold Destiny": on the personal drama behind the proof of the Poincare conjecture.
newyorker.com/archive/2006/08/28/060828fa_fac...Posted Aug 14, 2010, 4:40 AM UTC
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newyorker.com
I installed a tooltip on the downvote arrow. (Thanks to Raerth and BauerUK)
What do you think? Does it interfere too much? Would you prefere another wording?
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I like the idea--people should downvote based on quality, not opinion. But to some extent the perception of quality is subjective too. Do I downvote an article if it's not interesting to me? Factually incorrect? Poorly written? I don't know if the tooltip would be the right place to put it, but it would be helpful to have a standard (maybe in the sidebar).
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The problem is that we would have to create that standard (besides the one about thought-provoking articles) and you would still try to fit your subjective values into that standard.
I think it's better when you are completely free to vote on your idea of this subreddit: If you think something doesn't belong here, then you vote down and write a comment, expressing your subjective values. People will reply to your comment if they don't agree. This allows us to constantly adjust this subreddit to our needs.
For starters: You shouldn't downvote an article if it isn't interesting to you. Think music charts: You don't unbuy songs that you don't like.
Downvotes are, as the tooltip says, a distributed ban. If the majority thinks that it doesn't belong into this subreddit, then it's taken off the hot page.
Factually incorrect and poorly written needs to be evaluated each time. Some people can't write but have interesting ideas. I want to read them, but not if they are too (that's determined by the votes) bad. On the other hand, some articles are factually incorrect but provide an interesting view and start an interesting discussion. A comment with the correct facts can safe the article and turn the submission into something great (for the lack of a better word).
I like to think of reddit as a place where friends share links (and I think it started that way), maybe that's enough as a standard?
Post the interesting stuff (or rather just the longer, interesting articles), and let the redditors tell you if you are running off the rails.
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Just read Poincare's Prize a couple of years ago and Perfect Rigor this year... I doubt this will really shed any new light on the events as they unfolded, but it is a great story to read.
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What it made clear to me was that Perelman was so much cooler.
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Link is to the 10th page of the article. Took me a while to figure that out.
At first I thought WTF is this nonsense? Why am I supposed to know the relation between Yau and Perelman? How on Earth did this thing took two writers?
Agh, my bad. There's nothing particular about the 10th page, besides that that's where I stopped reading and decided it was worth submitting :).
np. interesting read though.