TL;DR: We’re considering making an official “Draft Amnesty Day” on the Forum when users will be encouraged to share unfinished posts, unpolished writing, butterfly ideas, thoughts they’re not sure they endorse, etc. We’re looking for feedback on this idea.
In the spirit of draft amnesty, I’m sharing this post even though it’s not very polished. :)
Motivation
We’re often told that posting on the Forum is intimidating. Anecdotally, lots of people have drafts they’ve written that they feel uncertain about. A draft like this tends to sit around in Google Drives gathering metaphorical dust until the author decides to spend time and finalize it (often, months later), the idea becomes irrelevant (someone posts something that makes it redundant, or the moment passes), or the draft is just discarded.
I think it’s good to maintain a high standard for content on the Forum, but it’s a shame and a real loss when potentially very useful ideas never see the light of day — or get shared half a year later than they could have been.
Sharing a draft before you share a final version of a post can also mean that the final version is better![1] Others can provide feedback, notice flaws, share relevant resources, etc. You can also fail faster, which is also a win.
How this would work
- We’d announce a day (or weekend). On that day, there might be a banner at the top of the Frontpage announcing that it’s Draft Amnesty Day (DAD).
- By default, we’d do this once and see how it goes. We wouldn’t plan for it to be recurring.
- We’d make a tag and encourage everyone to use it. Users who aren’t logged in wouldn’t see DAD posts by default, and others would be able to hide the posts entirely.
- We’d provide a template message to put on the top of DAD posts so that others can engage with it accordingly.
- We’d ask people to be especially nice in the comments of DAD posts (and would be ready to moderate any cases that violate this norm). On the other hand, honest feedback would likely be really useful, so I’d hope that this wouldn’t prevent people from commenting, and I’d encourage people to post “feedback guidelines.”
- Maybe: these posts wouldn’t be indexed on search engines, meaning they wouldn’t show up when you search via something like Google.
- If you end up polishing or otherwise finalizing a DAD draft and would like to share it again, we’d encourage that — you wouldn’t need to worry that you should “save” your posts for later.
An example blurb to put on top of DAD posts
This is a Draft Amnesty Day draft. That means it’s not polished, it’s probably not up to my standards, the ideas are not thought out, and I haven’t checked everything. I was explicitly encouraged to post something unfinished! |
Commenting and feedback guidelines: I’m going with the default — please be nice. But constructive feedback is appreciated; please let me know what you think is wrong. Feedback on the structure of the argument is also appreciated. |
This would go right under the title (if the author wants to put it there).
What do you think of this idea?
How could it go wrong? How could it be improved? Would you post anything? Please share your feedback![2]
You can also use the comment section of this post to share ideas you have for posts and get feedback on those ideas.

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I think this is related to “agile” approaches (e.g. to software development), although I don’t know much about the theory, and “lean” principles.
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I might not respond to everything, but I'll read all the comments.
I think the intent is great, but maybe if people find the forums so intimidating or unfriendly that they are reluctant or unwilling to post their ideas, there is a different problem that needs looking at?
Obviously there is information overload in all of our lives, so a digest of draft posts could be helpful in getting eyes on those, but the mechanism for exploring those ideas may be more limited.
Could you consider creating a permanent sub forum for idea development instead. One that is specifically for the submission of early ideas by those who are seeking editorial assistance or a sort of pre-screening from a friendly audience geared towards helpfulness , mentoring, or even just editorial support? This is an approach that is already used effectively in writing and storytelling sites. This forum could provide only notifications to those who sign up to provide support, but anyone could participate.
This could also provide a more permanent method for people to build reputation and ease into more full participation while also being more encouraging to the sharing of new ideas on a permanent basis. It feels like a way to provide a transition into the EA community without as much risk of alienating or having members not speak up.
If someone has naive ideas and enthusiasm, an unfiltered takedown of that idea can permanently put them off or squelch their enthusiasm. Every one of us has had those ideas at some point (and probably still do, but hopefully we get better self-screening them as we get older). If they have an area where there is a tailored community to help them refine or kindly guide them to understanding why their idea may not work, you can cultivate them and help build excellence.
I would say regardless of the mechanism, it would be useful to provide a guide on some basic/minimum information that should be included to open discussion.