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Have you considered that this might instead be a lesson in not contributing to the problem of harassment? Hacker News prides itself on an atmosphere of civil di

Have you considered that this might instead be a lesson in not contributing to the problem of harassment? Hacker News prides itself on an atmosphere of civil discourse - and that's reflected in our guidelines. We're not Reddit and we certainly aren't 4chan. We as a community dropped the ball by allowing this to happen.

seibelj 10y ago
I'm not approving what happened. I don't think we are going to solve this issue, as it's a problem on every website everywhere and no one has been able to keep a forum anonymous and civil at the same time without heavy handed moderators policing all speech and manually approving every comment. The easier solution is to say to yourself, "by posting this on the internet some people may be mad at me and voice their displeasure, but it's a risk I'm willing to take".
- etjossem 10y ago
  It is very easy for you and I to throw up our hands and say the online trolling problem will never be solved, because we don't generally experience it in full force. We have the ability to shrug off comments that are unconstructively critical of us, because they only come very occasionally and are drowned out by positive comments. Meanwhile, there are new voices that want in on the conversation - maybe they're young, or female, or minorities. They are routinely getting shouted down by our community, and here we are, admitting that they wouldn't face the same ire if they obscured their experience/gender/race by writing under psuedonyms. I will do my part. I will downvote trolls, and I'd encourage others to do the same.
  - seibelj 10y ago
    It's great that you will downvote comments and encourage other to do the same. This is what non-trolls have been doing forever and that will not solve the problem on its own. The best solution is to either accept reality and ignore the haters, or even better, think up some novel, innovative solution to crack the nut of online trolls. But that is very, very hard and no one has yet succeeded. Facebook does well because no one is anonymous. Reddit is a cesspool for the opposite reason, where each subreddit is only as strong as the moderation team and the users regularly flagging content.
    - etjossem 10y ago
      It's not a technical problem - it's a community problem. Some of us are happy to admit defeat and ignore bad behavior against marginalized groups, rather than actively responding to it, because it doesn't affect us nearly as deeply. This is the story of Reddit's 4chanization and it could be the story of HN too, if we don't make a point of caring about our guidelines.

seibelj 10y ago

I'm not approving what happened. I don't think we are going to solve this issue, as it's a problem on every website everywhere and no one has been able to keep a forum anonymous and civil at the same time without heavy handed moderators policing all speech and manually approving every comment. The easier solution is to say to yourself, "by posting this on the internet some people may be mad at me and voice their displeasure, but it's a risk I'm willing to take".

etjossem 10y ago
It is very easy for you and I to throw up our hands and say the online trolling problem will never be solved, because we don't generally experience it in full force. We have the ability to shrug off comments that are unconstructively critical of us, because they only come very occasionally and are drowned out by positive comments. Meanwhile, there are new voices that want in on the conversation - maybe they're young, or female, or minorities. They are routinely getting shouted down by our community, and here we are, admitting that they wouldn't face the same ire if they obscured their experience/gender/race by writing under psuedonyms. I will do my part. I will downvote trolls, and I'd encourage others to do the same.
- seibelj 10y ago
  It's great that you will downvote comments and encourage other to do the same. This is what non-trolls have been doing forever and that will not solve the problem on its own. The best solution is to either accept reality and ignore the haters, or even better, think up some novel, innovative solution to crack the nut of online trolls. But that is very, very hard and no one has yet succeeded. Facebook does well because no one is anonymous. Reddit is a cesspool for the opposite reason, where each subreddit is only as strong as the moderation team and the users regularly flagging content.
  - etjossem 10y ago
    It's not a technical problem - it's a community problem. Some of us are happy to admit defeat and ignore bad behavior against marginalized groups, rather than actively responding to it, because it doesn't affect us nearly as deeply. This is the story of Reddit's 4chanization and it could be the story of HN too, if we don't make a point of caring about our guidelines.