Scott announces the finalist selection phase for the 2026 Book Review Contest, asking readers to help rate 162 entries using a new website built by Rob Ennals. Longer summary

Scott announces that the 2026 Book Review Contest has received 162 entries and needs to be narrowed down to about a dozen finalists. Since he can't read all entries alone, he's asking readers to help by rating as many reviews as they have time for on a scale of 1-10. Rob Ennals, a software engineer, has built a dedicated website to make the rating process easier, which displays reviews randomly by default to ensure diverse coverage. Readers have until June 15 to submit their ratings. Shorter summary

Scott announces the 2026 book review contest with a May 20th deadline, requiring anonymized submissions via Google Form, offering prizes of at least $2,500/$1,000/$500 for the top three winners. Longer summary

Scott announces the 2026 book review contest with rules and guidelines. Entries should be book reviews between 2,000-10,000 words, submitted via Google Form with an anonymized Google Doc by May 20th. The contest will have a finalist selection round voted on by readers in spring, with finalists posted weekly through summer, followed by final voting in late summer/fall. Prizes are at least $2,500 for first place, $1,000 for second, and $500 for third, plus publicity, free subscriptions, and potential writing opportunities. Scott emphasizes the contest should be blind (no identifying information in the document itself) and notes he may provide mild affirmative action for nontraditional categories like fiction, poetry, or pre-1900 books. Shorter summary

Scott opens a classifieds thread for readers to advertise employment, dating, blogs, products, meetups and other services in organized categories with guidelines for respectful posting. Longer summary

This is a classifieds thread post where Scott invites readers to advertise various things in the comments section. The post establishes several categories for advertisements including Employment, Dating, Read My Blog, Consume My Product/Service, Meetup, and Other. Scott provides guidelines for posting, emphasizing that commenters should respond to appropriate top-level categories and be respectful, especially toward people posting dating ads. The post also includes links to EA job boards, internships, and meetup resources. Shorter summary

Scott asks readers to suggest questions for the 2026 ACX/Metaculus forecasting contest, with prizes for the top ten contributors and AI bots competing this year. Longer summary

Scott announces the upcoming ACX/Metaculus forecasting contest for 2026 and calls for question suggestions from readers. The contest has been running for several years with Metaculus handling most of the organization, and last year attracted over 4500 forecasters predicting on 33 questions. Scott explains that good questions should be objective, verifiable outcomes that will be resolved by year's end, providing examples of well-specified versus poorly-specified questions. The top ten question contributors will receive prizes ranging from $150 to $700, and this year's contest will include AI bots competing alongside humans. Shorter summary

Scott announces the winners and finalists of the 2025 Non-Book Review Contest, with prizes ranging from free subscriptions to $2500, and provides bios for all the winning authors. Longer summary

Scott announces the winners of the 2025 Non-Book Review Contest, with first place going to a review of Joan of Arc, second place to Alpha School, and third place to the Russo-Ukrainian War. The post lists all finalists and honorable mentions with brief bios of the authors, explains the prizes (ranging from free ACX subscriptions to cash awards of $2500 for first place), and notes that the contest will alternate yearly between book reviews and non-book reviews going forward. Shorter summary

Scott opens voting for the 2025 Non-Book Review Contest finalists, listing all thirteen entries and providing a link to the ranked-choice voting form. Longer summary

Scott Alexander announces voting for the 2025 Non-Book Review Contest finalists, providing links to all thirteen finalist entries and the voting form. The post lists the diverse topics of the finalists, ranging from education and science to personal experiences and historical events. Voting will use ranked choice format where voters pick their top three choices, and closes on October 13. Shorter summary

A data-driven analysis of the ACX/SSC comment section quality over time reveals historical peaks and valleys, with recent signs of improvement after previous declines in 2016 and 2021. Longer summary

This review analyzes the quality of the Astral Codex Ten (ACX) comment section over time, comparing it to its predecessor Slate Star Codex (SSC). Through detailed data analysis of 1.8M comments across 2,460 posts, the author identifies two major changes in comment quality - one in 2016 and another during the 2021 transition to ACX. The analysis looks at four key metrics: depth of engagement, freedom of intellectual engagement, politeness, and complexity of thought. While the data shows a decline after these turning points, recent trends suggest the comment section may be recovering. The author explores several hypotheses for the 2016 decline, including changes in post frequency and the impact of Trump's rise on discussion norms. Shorter summary

Scott announces a contest for reviews of anything except books, with prizes ranging from $500 to $2,500, due May 12th. Longer summary

Scott announces a variation on his yearly book review contest: instead of reviewing books, participants should review anything else - movies, products, societies, abstract concepts, etc. The post outlines the contest rules, including word count guidelines (2,000-10,000 words), submission process through a Google Form, and prize money ($2,500 for first place). Scott emphasizes that submissions should be anonymous and provides formatting guidelines for footnotes. Shorter summary

Scott announces a new subscriber-only AMA session, setting clear boundaries about which questions he will and won't answer. Longer summary

Scott Alexander announces a new Ask Me Anything (AMA) session for paid subscribers, where non-subscribers can read responses but only subscribers can ask questions and comment. He sets boundaries for questions he won't answer, including requests for medical advice, attempts to generate controversial statements, and pointless hypotheticals. Shorter summary

Scott makes his annual pitch for paid subscriptions to Astral Codex Ten, detailing benefits, showing subscription trends, and listing past subscriber-only content while unlocking two posts as previews. Longer summary

Scott announces his annual subscription drive for Astral Codex Ten, showing subscription trends since the blog's start and listing the subscriber-only posts from the past year. The post explains the benefits of subscribing ($10/month or $2.50 for students/hardship cases), shows how subscriptions peaked early then declined, and lists all twelve subscriber-only posts from the previous year. Scott emphasizes he's financially comfortable but would like to do better than break-even, and unlocks two old subscriber-only posts as a preview. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander announces the winners and finalists of the 2024 Book Review Contest, with prizes for the top three reviews. Longer summary

Scott Alexander announces the winners of the 2024 Book Review Contest. The top three winners are Amanda's review of 'Two Arms And A Head', David Matolcsi's review of 'Nine Lives', and Jack Thorlin's review of 'How The War Was Won'. The post lists the other finalists and honorable mentions, providing brief descriptions of the reviewers. Scott mentions potential changes to the contest format for future years, considering an 'Everything-Except-Book-Reviews' contest for next year. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander shares his predictions for 2022 on various topics, comments on predictions from other sources, and announces a prediction contest for readers. Longer summary

Scott Alexander presents a list of predictions for 2022 covering various topics including US politics, world events, economics, technology, COVID-19, personal life, and his blog. He assigns probabilities to each prediction. The post also includes predictions from Vox and Matt Yglesias, which Scott comments on and adjusts based on his own views. The post ends with an announcement of a prediction contest for readers, based on the same set of questions. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander describes a now-closed reader survey project supporting ACX community studies, with instructions on survey completion and content warnings. Longer summary

Scott Alexander is conducting a reader survey project to support studies by ACX community members. The post provides instructions for readers to fill out multiple surveys, starting with a general demographic survey and then proceeding based on their birth date. The surveys cover various topics, some targeted at specific populations. Scott notes that some surveys deal with sensitive topics and advises readers to skip any that make them uncomfortable. He also mentions that the project is now closed and no further responses will be counted. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander announces the winners of the Book Review Contest, lists all finalists, and explains the prizes, including increased monetary awards. Longer summary

This post announces the winners of the Book Review Contest. The first place goes to Lars Doucet for his review of 'Progress and Poverty', second place to Whimsi for 'Down And Out In Paris And London', and third place to ELP for 'On The Natural Faculties'. A Readers' Choice Award is given to Misha Saul for 'Disunited Nations vs. Dawn Of Eurasia'. Scott lists all other finalists and their identities. He mentions that all finalists receive a free subscription to Astral Codex Ten, and the top winners get monetary prizes, which have been quintupled due to subscriber generosity. The post ends with instructions for prize collection and a link to a list of all contestants. Shorter summary

Scott Alexander announces the ACX Reader Research Survey, inviting researchers to submit questions for the blog's readership by July 10. Longer summary

Scott Alexander announces the ACX Reader Research Survey, inviting researchers to submit questions for the blog's readership. The survey aims to gather data on specific demographics among ACX readers, such as those in tech, science, meditation/drugs/biohacking, with unusual genders/sexualities, or psychiatric issues. Researchers are asked to email Scott with their project details and a Google Form containing their questions by July 10. The survey structure is still being finalized, but will likely involve assigning User IDs and asking basic demographic questions before directing participants to complete a selection of submitted surveys. The survey will run until August 1, with results potentially leading to blog posts or academic papers. Shorter summary