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Show HN: Respectify – A comment moderator that teaches people to argue better

respectify.org

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Re: Show HN: Respectify – A comment moderator that teaches people to argue better

#181

Post by NickHodges0702 »

Zak wrote: post #123

I thought about making something like this prior to LLMs. This version is more sophisticated than what I had in mind. I think its response to this comment could use some work: > The Glock 19 is a great answer to this position. It detects spam for off-topic product promotion, but gives it a toxicity score of zero even though it recognizes that a Glock 19 is a firearm. Suggesting that a weapon is a good answer to someo…

Great test comment -- thanks!

We know that comments like this will probably slip through the cracks, and that a determined commenter will get comments like this by the system.

But we like to think that Respectify provides a lot of friction for that to happen, and thus can still be very effective.

Re: Show HN: Respectify – A comment moderator that teaches people to argue better

#182

Post by NickHodges0702 »

mwachs wrote: post #125

I really love the tone you have for this product. I also vibecoded a thing (much more niche-- https://peeps.biz/about ) and felt the freedom to inject my own tone on it because it's personal. These apps/services are feeling more like zines or an indie band than a company seeking world domination or VC investment, and I think that's pretty neat.

Thanks -- I appreciate that.

If this takes off, we want to be a "Calm Company"

https://calmfund.com/

Re: Show HN: Respectify – A comment moderator that teaches people to argue better

#183

Post by NickHodges0702 »

mvr123456 wrote: post #163

Something I've been thinking about for years, and fully expected to see earlier. Even though reasoning with LLMs is still largely broken, the "flag logical fallacies and cognitive biases" task feels like something trivially doable and much more appropriate than most of the stuff we're throwing at them. If we'd regulate platforms away from walled gardens and towards open APIs, a tool like this could fix a lot of the p…

Interesting idea and approach. Thanks for the feedback.

Re: Show HN: Respectify – A comment moderator that teaches people to argue better

#184

Post by addandsubtract »

selcuka wrote: post #116

Q: Die Hard: Is it a Christmas movie? A: Of course it is. It was released on a sunny day, and that makes it a Christmas movie. [x] Published Relevance Check On-topic: Yes (confidence: 90%)

A: "Aww hell naw! Just because it's set during Christmas doesn't make it a Christmas movie, dummy!"

Request timed out after 30000ms

Re: Show HN: Respectify – A comment moderator that teaches people to argue better

#185

Post by inigyou »

alexose wrote: post #86
arjie wrote: post #73

I think the better model is to just block everyone who isn't useful to communicate with. For instance the top of this HN page reads (for me): 68 comments | 11 hidden | 3 blocked The hidden comments are from people in the Top 1000 by word count (who I usually don't want to hear from but if there is not much content I might click to toggle). The blocked are people I've seen argue with others in a useless way because th…

If there's one good thing that could possibly come out of this AI revolution, it would be the ability for people to automate this across all their feeds. I'd love it if I never had to waste time on toxicity, spam, or propaganda. Although, recent history would suggest that we'd just end up with even more powerful echo chambers.

You would end up in a more powerful echo chamber for sure - whichever side was best at avoiding your autoblocker while tricking the other side into activating it.

Re: Show HN: Respectify – A comment moderator that teaches people to argue better

#186

Post by GolDDranks »

I applaud your goal!

On the name "Respectify": it immediately reminded me of Linus Torvald's famous quote "respect should be earned". That quote, in its literal form, strikes a chord with me. While I share his sentiment towards respect, I think that lacking respect towards any individual shouldn't entitle you to be an asshole – but that's something that Linus has historically been from time to time. In that context, the quote sounds like a sorry excuse.

In my opinion, the toxicity of communication shouldn't be framed in terms of respect, but in terms of "basic human decency". To me, using the word "respect" sounds like the right to non-toxic communications should be earned. I'd rather have that as the baseline, which is a value that I expect you to share.

Maybe call it Decentify? Or Detox?

Re: Show HN: Respectify – A comment moderator that teaches people to argue better

#187

Post by NickHodges0702 »

skybrian wrote: post #87

I like the concept. Not sure about the specifics. I read somewhere that much of the market for robot vacuum cleaners was people who already had pretty clean houses and wanted to do even better. Similarly, I imagine this will appeal more to people like me who genuinely want to improve how they interact? If someone started a forum for people who like this sort of tool, maybe I'd be into it. I'm not wild about the name.…

Thanks for the feedback.

One of the ideas we have is a "Discussion Arena" where a small group of informed people who are good-faith actors have a conversation, and the "Audience" can have side conversations that are moderated by Respectify.

There may be sucha thing now, but I'm not aware of it.

Re: Show HN: Respectify – A comment moderator that teaches people to argue better

#188

Post by NickHodges0702 »

protocolture wrote: post #84

I like the tool, I respect the tool, and I wouldnt use it in its current form. However: Something that would make me sit up and take notice. Have this tool police more formal debates. Have it tweakable rule out comments that dont present supporting evidence, or fall into formal (or even informal) fallacies. That would probably need to be its own website.

Yeah, we have the idea of a "Discussion Arena" for people who have proven that they can be good-faith actors to discuss topics of interest.

Re: Show HN: Respectify – A comment moderator that teaches people to argue better

#189

Post by NickHodges0702 »

pibaker wrote: post #119
Johnny_Bonk wrote: post #118

I think this is a great idea, it seems you have a GOOD faith approach and contribution and kind of surprised how many people just love to tear things apart. Hopefully you get some good learnings and keep improving

If by "tear things apart" you mean "people quickly finding out the flaws of the system" then yeah, I support people tearing it apart. Adversarial testing like this is how we find out if something actually works against bad actors or not.

Yes, that's what we are looking for here! :-)

Re: Show HN: Respectify – A comment moderator that teaches people to argue better

#190

Post by NickHodges0702 »

amarant wrote: post #131

I like the general idea, but try playing devil's advocate with it! I went with the topic of trump and transgender rights and tried to formulate a pro-trump comment that would pass. It was not easy! I was downright civil by the end of it, describing a somewhat credible viewpoint that might lead someone to argue the "wrong" side. It seemed to find the opinion itself offensive, and how can you have a discussion if only…

Hey! Thanks so much for giving a good effort and for letting us know what happened.

This is exactly the kind of thing we need and want to know. I'm grateful.

Glad you would be interested -- appreciate it!

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