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Tell HN: The "I Will Piledrive You If You Mention AI Again" Post Is Shadowbanned

28 points by minimaxir ↗ HN
You can see that's the case if showdead is enabled on your HN account: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=mataroa.blog

Probably the correct moderation decision since every post about it has been community-flagged.

(this submission was also shadowbanned apparently)

18 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 54.6 ms ] thread
marssaxman
That's a shame; it was an entertaining, well-written piece, and its over-the-top style reminded me somewhat of James Mickens' classic articles.
mensetmanusman
I enjoyed it, great alternative viewpoint to the hype with a dose of humor.
kstenerud
And that's fine. He may have been trying for humor, but the article came off as arrogant, condescending, rude, and childish.

I didn't flag it but I was very tempted to...

nonplus
Same here, it came across as a juvenile and arrogant post that I stopped reading at the second threat of violence in spite of tantalizing comments on hn.

I'm slightly disappointed in hn that it has drawn so much attention (maybe there's gold after the threats; have at it to anyone with the demeanor to wait for it).

toomuchtodo
I’m more disappointed in people using flag instead of hide. Hide it from yourself, but not others, if a bit of uncouth is too off putting. Everyone here is supposedly an adult.
somastoma
I think you just touched on it. for reference, I have had several accounts in the past, just for fun. I'm a complete newbie, but enjoyed many articles and commented on them. I was constantly downvoted (or whatever term is used) and I was many times just innocently asking honest questions. I feel that most of the people here ARE childish and can't relate, and therefore impose their 'powers' of banning and downvoting. After a year of all that childish behavior on here, I just closed my accounts and left. I am just a very curious (and I think I am intelligent) retired senior aerospace engineer. I was just so rudely treated here that I couldn't fathom the reasons for it. I am just too ignorant of this 'new' culture, I guess...
nonplus
I have not done either myself to be clear. I do seem to have made a choice not to read the content (stopped reading it based on tone) and I'm going to hold to that and likely hold it against the author in the future. They are welcome to overcome my bias with good content /arguments.
collingreen
His style is exactly that - arrogant, condescending, exasperated, and bombastic. I find his writing both very entertaining (I get many surprise laughs) and unexpectedly insightful. The style is so refreshing compared to the bland influencer factory (that he often attacks) and it plays really well into the childish craving I have to blame big industry problems/trends on the pointy haired boss / office space style cliches.

I'm sorry you don't like it; I expect it doesn't resonate with many but I'm glad I found this author here on HN a few months ago.

CoastalCoder
I'd never seen that article before, so I just looked it up.

It's tone reminds me a lot of the "MongoDB is web-scale" video. I was pretty entertained.

patrick451
There is a disturbing trend on HN that articles on AI that aren't just gushing positive affirmation get flagged. The last one I saw was

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40626692

which linked to a real journal article called "Chat GPT is Bullshit". HN readers are evidently overly sensitive these days.

nonplus
I think there's a lot of readers who want content that critiques AI.

https://knowingmachines.org/models-all-the-way is excellent.

This content was not like what I linked, and for me at least (said content) needs to rethink their tone to be palatable. Or maybe the author has an audience that wants to be berated, and can ignore readers like me. I'm happy to tune out and let the niche continue.

leobg
Excellent indeed. Thanks for posting. Deserves its own post, I would say!
matrix87
I mean, considering who runs this forum it really doesn't surprise me