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I suspect that writing the corrective notices is cathartic for Dan.

by scott_s 11y ago

dang 11y ago
Oh God no, and if any catharsis works its way in there I excise it posthaste. But I think there is value in writing each one individually and varying them as much as possible (which isn't always very much). I do use a shortcut completer—personally recommended by tptacek as it turns out—for some things, but more on the email side.
- tptacek 11y ago
  How is it even possible that there aren't just buttons next to every comment in the admin UI that you can click to detach a comment and apply an incivility warning?
  - dang 11y ago
    We have software to detach the comments and do mechanical things like that, but finding ways to vary the message about civility seems important to me, so I force myself to do those by hand. Sometimes I throw in variations to counter tedium, even with the idea that it might have entertainment value... though that is dangerously easy to overdo. There's a design point here too. After two years, these comments have shown themselves to be partly formulaic and the sort of thing that could benefit from software support. I'd like that software support to be something available to users, not just moderators. If there were a way for users to convey to each other that a comment could be edited to better follow the guidelines, that'd be great, because we (actually just I in this respect, since I'm the only one currently posting moderation comments) would no longer be the bottleneck. The long-term vision for HN is to make it a self-regulating system.
- SherlockeHolmes 11y ago
  and if any catharsis works its way in there I excise it posthaste original poster meant that writing these posts are cathartic for you because they let you "untangle the knots" in this situation. he is referring to your (commonly believed) good-hearted nature and how it must be relieving for you to set things right. he didn't mean that you are using these posts to let off some steam, as you have perceived it.

I suspect that writing the corrective notices is cathartic for Dan.

by scott_s 11y ago

I suspect that writing the corrective notices is cathartic for Dan.

dang 11y ago

Oh God no, and if any catharsis works its way in there I excise it posthaste. But I think there is value in writing each one individually and varying them as much as possible (which isn't always very much). I do use a shortcut completer—personally recommended by tptacek as it turns out—for some things, but more on the email side.

tptacek 11y ago
How is it even possible that there aren't just buttons next to every comment in the admin UI that you can click to detach a comment and apply an incivility warning?
- dang 11y ago
  We have software to detach the comments and do mechanical things like that, but finding ways to vary the message about civility seems important to me, so I force myself to do those by hand. Sometimes I throw in variations to counter tedium, even with the idea that it might have entertainment value... though that is dangerously easy to overdo. There's a design point here too. After two years, these comments have shown themselves to be partly formulaic and the sort of thing that could benefit from software support. I'd like that software support to be something available to users, not just moderators. If there were a way for users to convey to each other that a comment could be edited to better follow the guidelines, that'd be great, because we (actually just I in this respect, since I'm the only one currently posting moderation comments) would no longer be the bottleneck. The long-term vision for HN is to make it a self-regulating system.
SherlockeHolmes 11y ago
and if any catharsis works its way in there I excise it posthaste original poster meant that writing these posts are cathartic for you because they let you "untangle the knots" in this situation. he is referring to your (commonly believed) good-hearted nature and how it must be relieving for you to set things right. he didn't mean that you are using these posts to let off some steam, as you have perceived it.