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Can you carve out an exception for economic / startup relevant legislation please? As a UK based startup, I would really value HN support navigating Brexit and

Can you carve out an exception for economic / startup relevant legislation please? As a UK based startup, I would really value HN support navigating Brexit and VATMOSS changes.

dang 10y ago
If one comes up this week, sure. Otherwise I doubt you need to worry. (It's interesting how the "this is just for a week" thing hasn't seemed to enter the conversation.)
- mattnewton 10y ago
  Of course, News doesn't stop rolling in, and people love their hacker news :) I know I'm personally guilty of being really sensitive and reactive to anything that looks like censorship right now.
- aaachilless 10y ago
  I think one of the reasons the time limit hasn't come up much in discussion is that it's hard to envision the data/information/knowledge that we might have in a week that we don't have today. I don't mean to imply one way or the other whether this experiment will have meaningful results, just that it's hard for me to picture myself, in a week, reviewing the situation and saying "wow, now I know X, Y, Z." I mean I'm not sure what those X, Y, and Z might be. On the other hand, the idea of an interminable ban on political discussion has many obviously salient implications, emotions, and such. A sort of half-baked analogy is that it's like lighting a tiny, contained trashcan fire in the middle of a nuclear reactor--it's not really a big deal but it's easy to see how it could trigger high-magnitude reactions from onlookers.
  - dang 10y ago
    I see what you mean, but we've already learned a lot just today. That's a creative analogy though.
- matheweis 10y ago
  > It's interesting how the "this is just for a week" thing hasn't seemed to enter the conversation. Because the YC/HN culture is to experiment to inform future direction. "just for a week" probably means "just for a week, so that we can see if it negatively or positively influences the quality of discussion... and, if the effect is positive, we may implement a similar policy for the long term" Thus, "just for a week" doesn't appear to have much relevance since the experiment is (presumably) part of a longer term plan to curb hostile commentary.
  - dang 10y ago
    You've explained that very well. The long-term plan is to protect the values of this site (intellectual curiosity and thoughtful conversation), or at least, it's our intention to find such a plan. But there's no longer term plan to ban politics. I understand why people would react with that concern, of course, but it really is just an experiment for a week.
    - striking 10y ago
      > there's no longer term plan to ban politics That was definitely not clear to me from the post (although it is reassuring).
      - dang 10y ago
        I did mean my original post to be a bit more reassuring about that than it came out as. But maybe that was for the best, because the reaction it provoked has been instructive. Also, I've gotten in trouble using that word "experiment" before. It turns out to mean weirdly, wildly different things to different people. But I'm attached to it.
- caf 10y ago
  (It's interesting how the "this is just for a week" thing hasn't seemed to enter the conversation.) I think that's just because people are natural cynics, and as such default to the assumption that a temporary state of emergency will be permanent.

Can you carve out an exception for economic / startup relevant legislation please? As a UK based startup, I would really value HN support navigating Brexit and VATMOSS changes.

dang 10y ago

If one comes up this week, sure. Otherwise I doubt you need to worry. (It's interesting how the "this is just for a week" thing hasn't seemed to enter the conversation.)

mattnewton 10y ago
Of course, News doesn't stop rolling in, and people love their hacker news :) I know I'm personally guilty of being really sensitive and reactive to anything that looks like censorship right now.
aaachilless 10y ago
I think one of the reasons the time limit hasn't come up much in discussion is that it's hard to envision the data/information/knowledge that we might have in a week that we don't have today. I don't mean to imply one way or the other whether this experiment will have meaningful results, just that it's hard for me to picture myself, in a week, reviewing the situation and saying "wow, now I know X, Y, Z." I mean I'm not sure what those X, Y, and Z might be. On the other hand, the idea of an interminable ban on political discussion has many obviously salient implications, emotions, and such. A sort of half-baked analogy is that it's like lighting a tiny, contained trashcan fire in the middle of a nuclear reactor--it's not really a big deal but it's easy to see how it could trigger high-magnitude reactions from onlookers.
- dang 10y ago
  I see what you mean, but we've already learned a lot just today. That's a creative analogy though.
matheweis 10y ago
> It's interesting how the "this is just for a week" thing hasn't seemed to enter the conversation. Because the YC/HN culture is to experiment to inform future direction. "just for a week" probably means "just for a week, so that we can see if it negatively or positively influences the quality of discussion... and, if the effect is positive, we may implement a similar policy for the long term" Thus, "just for a week" doesn't appear to have much relevance since the experiment is (presumably) part of a longer term plan to curb hostile commentary.
- dang 10y ago
  You've explained that very well. The long-term plan is to protect the values of this site (intellectual curiosity and thoughtful conversation), or at least, it's our intention to find such a plan. But there's no longer term plan to ban politics. I understand why people would react with that concern, of course, but it really is just an experiment for a week.
  - striking 10y ago
    > there's no longer term plan to ban politics That was definitely not clear to me from the post (although it is reassuring).
    - dang 10y ago
      I did mean my original post to be a bit more reassuring about that than it came out as. But maybe that was for the best, because the reaction it provoked has been instructive. Also, I've gotten in trouble using that word "experiment" before. It turns out to mean weirdly, wildly different things to different people. But I'm attached to it.
caf 10y ago
(It's interesting how the "this is just for a week" thing hasn't seemed to enter the conversation.) I think that's just because people are natural cynics, and as such default to the assumption that a temporary state of emergency will be permanent.