What community platforms are associated with Slate Star Codex?

Updated

Slate Star Codex (SSC) was a long-running blog by Scott Alexander, and its community extended beyond the comment section into several dedicated platforms. According to the site's own navigation, the main associated spaces are an SSC Discord Server, an SSC Podcast, and an SSC Subreddit, alongside a blogroll linking to related writers and communities. These are the places where readers gathered for real-time chat, audio content, and threaded discussion.

The core community platforms

Platform What it is Best for
SSC Subreddit A Reddit community for threaded discussion Long-form back-and-forth, link sharing, and archived threads
SSC Discord Server A real-time chat server Live conversation and quicker exchanges
SSC Podcast Audio versions of posts and related discussion Listening instead of reading
Blogroll A curated list of related blogs and communities Finding adjacent writers and rationalist/EA spaces

The site's homepage lists these under an "SSC Elsewhere" section, which is the clearest signal that they were treated as official extensions of the blog rather than fan-run offshoots.

Where the blogroll fits in

The blogroll is not a discussion platform itself, but it functions as a community map. It links out to blogs grouped by theme, including:

  • Economics — e.g., Bryan Caplan, David Friedman, Scott Sumner, Tyler Cowen
  • Effective Altruism — e.g., 80,000 Hours, the Effective Altruism Forum, GiveWell
  • Rationality — e.g., Less Wrong, Gwern Branwen, Zvi Mowshowitz, Katja Grace
  • Science — e.g., Andrew Gelman, Razib Khan, Scott Aaronson, Steve Hsu

For readers who wanted to follow the same conversations beyond SSC itself, the blogroll was the intended starting point.

What happened to the community after the blog was deleted

The blog was deleted in 2020, and in January 2021 Scott Alexander announced a successor blog, Astral Codex Ten, at https://astralcodexten.substack.com/. The announcement post ("Introducing Astral Codex Ten") is the primary source for where the writing moved. If you are looking for the current community, the successor blog and its associated spaces are the relevant destination; the original SSC platforms reflect the community as it existed around the blog's active period.

How to choose where to engage

  • If you want threaded, searchable discussion → the SSC Subreddit.
  • If you want live chat → the SSC Discord Server.
  • If you prefer audio → the SSC Podcast.
  • If you want to find related blogs and communities → the blogroll.
  • If you want the author's current writing → Astral Codex Ten.