You can flag anything you find off topic, and I'd encourage you to do so. What the community wants, the community gets. Flagging is a key way to say "no thanks" :).
As a long time user, I think the mods are mostly concerned about stopping flamewars and moderating obviously 'un-HNish' content, but a lot of what they do is about fostering the community.
1. If something hits the front page, shouldn't it immediately be moderated? As it has more visibility?
2. About the community moderating itself - that's a risk of populism and echo-chamber. By definition, HN works by popular vote. Letting the community decide to overcome guidelines by popular vote is what can lead to community to a dark populism point.
My "complaint" is caring for the changing platform.
Answering someone who spreads fake news using a misuse of the platform does not invalidate what I say.
Your comment is an attempt to diverge discussion because you don't like what I said there - but has nothing to do with the question about the platform itself.
Plus: Why won't you fully disclose your personal interest - you have multiple comments on this topic in HN.
You're simply willing to have your agenda pushed here. Nothing to do with the discussion about the platform.
You rather see the platform of HN go down, as long as you can see your agenda here.
Avoiding politics entirely might not be possible. Seemingly innocuous topics can be politicized or can contain political premises. From that point it becomes a question of, "Does this topic contain premises which contradict the political biases of the dominant HN view?", not "Is this topic political?"
That said, I would love to see less stuff rationalizing war, UBI, climate doom, covid biosecurity or any other fear promo in service of expanded governance.
However, I do find the tech censorship theme interesting. As well as over the top propaganda when it reaches the point of self-parody.
Agree with other posters. Please flag. Less CNN, NPR, The Guardian, The Atlantic and other outlets which are primarily sources of politicized news. Articles with counter points to their agenda are almost always flagged. Would be best if the flagging was more consistent.
There's also the "hide" option.
If it gets really bad you can always return to the text editor and get something accomplished.
8 comments
[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 37.0 ms ] threadAs a long time user, I think the mods are mostly concerned about stopping flamewars and moderating obviously 'un-HNish' content, but a lot of what they do is about fostering the community.
See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30630915 and actually most of dang's comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dang
Aren't the guidelines there to keep the community "HACKER news"? Focus on tech?
If anything goes, well, so anything goes. Nothing should be moderated. But that's not the case. Things are moderated - but with no consistency.
On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting.
If you don't like it, flag it. But if you look at the front page, it's all mainly tech-related so it's working fine.
So that the community has a touchstone.
But they are guidelines, not laws.
> Things are moderated - but with no consistency.
It's a big job, so it isn't done perfectly. But I'm sure they'd love to hear about specific instances of moderation that are or seem inconsistent.
But note that the moderation isn't all done by the moderators; the community moderates too.
I have 2 points worth considering in this case:
1. If something hits the front page, shouldn't it immediately be moderated? As it has more visibility?
2. About the community moderating itself - that's a risk of populism and echo-chamber. By definition, HN works by popular vote. Letting the community decide to overcome guidelines by popular vote is what can lead to community to a dark populism point.
I quote:
> This is by definition not an apartheid state.
> This law denying citizenship is to block a loophole used by known terrorists to come into Israel and explode Jews on busses.
... Flag yourself.
Answering someone who spreads fake news using a misuse of the platform does not invalidate what I say.
Your comment is an attempt to diverge discussion because you don't like what I said there - but has nothing to do with the question about the platform itself.
Plus: Why won't you fully disclose your personal interest - you have multiple comments on this topic in HN. You're simply willing to have your agenda pushed here. Nothing to do with the discussion about the platform.
You rather see the platform of HN go down, as long as you can see your agenda here.
That said, I would love to see less stuff rationalizing war, UBI, climate doom, covid biosecurity or any other fear promo in service of expanded governance.
However, I do find the tech censorship theme interesting. As well as over the top propaganda when it reaches the point of self-parody.
Agree with other posters. Please flag. Less CNN, NPR, The Guardian, The Atlantic and other outlets which are primarily sources of politicized news. Articles with counter points to their agenda are almost always flagged. Would be best if the flagging was more consistent.
There's also the "hide" option.
If it gets really bad you can always return to the text editor and get something accomplished.