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From news.istambulcombinator.com.tr , circa 2012 : >Respectfully, can we maintain the ban on political articles on Istambul Hacker News? Sure, we can close ou

From news.istambulcombinator.com.tr , circa 2012 : >Respectfully, can we maintain the ban on political articles on Istambul Hacker News? Sure, we can close our ears, and also we can argue that here we only discuss tech all the time. But as long as the world we live in influences tech, and all of us, there should be a political discussion here. HN comments are one of the sharpest for online forums, and it is a shame that we are not allowed to a medium to read what the tech community feels about the current issues

jbyers 10y ago
I'm happy to debate the intersection of technology and politics here. But not pure politics. This community has an identity and norms and topics that are and aren't in scope. An alternative would be to use the same software, same group of passionate people to start the discussion, and the backing of Y Combinator in a different forum with a different identity, norms, etc. I'm also happy to be wrong / downvoted. It's for the community to decide, but it has to be a choice.
- zzleeper 10y ago
  I agree that ultimately the forum reflects the joint will of both YC the company and its users. For instance, a bird-watching forum might have a a strict ban on anything not related to birds, while the YC ban on politics is softer. What I don't like at all is people abusing flagging. You can flag any new article with ~4 votes, so less than a handful of active users can shape what we end up discussing.
sremani 10y ago
This is one of many feeds of information for me, and I assume for most of us. Currently, all my other feeds are overly politicized. Yes, I have a political opinion and understand the need for discourse, but we are currently in a hyper-partisan political cycle and in which there is no winner. The gap is so wide, it is hard for one group to engage the other. So now all we get in these "political discussions" is hyper virtue signaling. I am talking about all sides. This is not the time for discussion, because in our minds the battle lines are drawn. I wish HN enforces a month of political moratorium. I will live and die on HN and will not make a single low info comment!
- jacquesm 10y ago
  > This is not the time for discussion, because in our minds the battle lines are drawn. Yes, and discussion can make those battle lines disappear by finding common ground if possible and if not possible it will at least help assess how far the damage from all this bs can spread. Sticking your head in the ground is not going to make the problem go away, in fact might make it fractionally worse. On another note, in the US the choice has been made, but there are other places in the world where it is not too late and discussing this might throw up an argument or two that could be used to deflect disaster elsewhere. > I wish HN enforces a month of political moratorium. Because it's too much trouble to not click on links about subjects you wish were not discussed?
  - sremani 10y ago
    As a Green Card holder in US, who has put the papers for naturalization a month ago, I guarantee you, I have more skin in the game than most people here. >Because it's too much trouble to not click on links about subjects you wish were not discussed? The weakness is thoroughly mine.
rc_bhg 10y ago
> Sure, we can close our ears Eh? I read new in plenty of other places. This is supposed to be news kept to tech topics.

jbyers 10y ago

I'm happy to debate the intersection of technology and politics here. But not pure politics. This community has an identity and norms and topics that are and aren't in scope. An alternative would be to use the same software, same group of passionate people to start the discussion, and the backing of Y Combinator in a different forum with a different identity, norms, etc. I'm also happy to be wrong / downvoted. It's for the community to decide, but it has to be a choice.

zzleeper 10y ago
I agree that ultimately the forum reflects the joint will of both YC the company and its users. For instance, a bird-watching forum might have a a strict ban on anything not related to birds, while the YC ban on politics is softer. What I don't like at all is people abusing flagging. You can flag any new article with ~4 votes, so less than a handful of active users can shape what we end up discussing.

sremani 10y ago

This is one of many feeds of information for me, and I assume for most of us. Currently, all my other feeds are overly politicized. Yes, I have a political opinion and understand the need for discourse, but we are currently in a hyper-partisan political cycle and in which there is no winner. The gap is so wide, it is hard for one group to engage the other. So now all we get in these "political discussions" is hyper virtue signaling. I am talking about all sides. This is not the time for discussion, because in our minds the battle lines are drawn. I wish HN enforces a month of political moratorium. I will live and die on HN and will not make a single low info comment!

jacquesm 10y ago
> This is not the time for discussion, because in our minds the battle lines are drawn. Yes, and discussion can make those battle lines disappear by finding common ground if possible and if not possible it will at least help assess how far the damage from all this bs can spread. Sticking your head in the ground is not going to make the problem go away, in fact might make it fractionally worse. On another note, in the US the choice has been made, but there are other places in the world where it is not too late and discussing this might throw up an argument or two that could be used to deflect disaster elsewhere. > I wish HN enforces a month of political moratorium. Because it's too much trouble to not click on links about subjects you wish were not discussed?
- sremani 10y ago
  As a Green Card holder in US, who has put the papers for naturalization a month ago, I guarantee you, I have more skin in the game than most people here. >Because it's too much trouble to not click on links about subjects you wish were not discussed? The weakness is thoroughly mine.

rc_bhg 10y ago

> Sure, we can close our ears Eh? I read new in plenty of other places. This is supposed to be news kept to tech topics.