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Discussing censorship on HackerNews does not make sense

8 points by brobdingnagian ↗ HN
HackerNews is not the right place to have conversations about censorship, such as this one, presently the top post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9716783.

Free speech is not allowed here - it is strictly censored and the moderators follow a policy that is their own preference. This place is about as far away from allowing free speech as you can get. It is, quite frankly, closer to the curated North Korea than to the wild west that is the USA. And that's a fact.

The links are good though, we can all agree on that.

Also: It is sensical to discuss censorship here, as long as we are discussing the way this place is censored.

8 comments

[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 27.4 ms ] thread
[dead] startjumper
Anyone who openly agrees with you will likely have their account hellbanned, so I wouldn't expect too many supportive comments.
7erb
Only people who think and express themselves within HN's borg-like ideological parameters can coexist here. If you say or believe something not in harmony with The Borg, you'll soon be talking to yourself only.

I fully expect to be hellbanned (or downvoted into oblivion and then hellbanned) for expressing this view.

dang
It's a measure of how false your first paragraph is that I can't guess which way your imaginary Borg leans. We see roughly the same number of comments denouncing HN for being libertarian as socialist. As far as I can tell, most HN users are neither of those; rather these perceptions are distorted by what one might call ideological enemy bias.
7erb
There is a culture-fit that HN users must measure up to. If they don't, they are gone.

Just admit it: HN is a clique. An exclusive club of like-minded people. Outsiders and people who don't agree with you are out.

dang
I certainly wouldn't put it that way. But since you sound sure, I'll ask the same of you as the OP: please provide links to specific posts that convinced you of this view. From my point of view it's hard to imagine what those would look like. But perhaps I'm missing something important.

HN doesn't seem to me to consist of like-minded people. If it did, I wouldn't have to spend so much time asking users not to berate each other.

7erb
Hey, as long as people agree with you and don't stray outside the HN filter bubble, they'll be fine. I'm sure about that.
dang
It's hard to answer such a generic charge. I could say "no we don't", but that's not much better than "nuh uh". If you'd like a substantive answer, we'd need to see links to specific posts that led you to this view.

I'm glad you like the stories at least!

anti-shill
great links...but as for what you mentioned...no comment