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So, what does this tell us about HN’s policies and moderation activities?

oblio 8y ago
Do they actually moderate stuff which is negative about YC? I don't think I've ever seen it. What does happen, in my opinion, is that negative comments get down voted into oblivion, which kind of makes sense. The objective aspect is that they generally make for low quality conversations and the subjective aspect is that you're complaining about people's livelihood (the age old: "you can not rely on a person understanding something if their salary depends on them not understanding it").
- ceejayoz 8y ago
  > Do they actually moderate stuff which is negative about YC? I don't think I've ever seen it. > What does happen, in my opinion, is that negative comments get down voted into oblivion, which kind of makes sense. "Downvoted into oblivion" would be precisely how I'd quietly moderate stuff I didn't want showing up on the site. Not saying it's happening, but "I don't think I've ever seen it" would be precisely the intended result.
codetrotter 8y ago
Nothing? I’ve seen negative news about YC funded companies on the front page many times, and I think I’ve seen some articles that were being critical of YC somehow too. So I don’t think they abuse their powers for censoring negative news. Besides, HN is not the product, nor is it primarily meant to market the YC backed companies I think. HN is a forum for the startup community and its primary function for YC I think is to be a channel to attract people to YC.
- sevensor 8y ago
  > Besides, HN is not the product, nor is it primarily meant to market the YC backed companies I think. HN is a forum for the startup community and its primary function for YC I think is to be a channel to attract people to YC. Exactly -- provable, heavy-handed suppression of criticism by the moderators would undermine this goal. Instead, the community itself exerts a drag on direct criticism of YC and its companies by giving it less attention than other material. (With some notable exceptions.) And that's fine -- I can and do find such material on other fora which have their own biases.
albertgoeswoof 8y ago
HN is run by YC so is obviously going to be biased. But that's ok because you know that it's presenting a biased viewpoint and can balance it appropriately. Free newspapers masquerade as a balanced source and it's not always obvious who they're owned by and why they're free.
tannhaeuser 8y ago
We all know HN runs the occasional job ad and promotional piece, but I find it acceptable given the educated target audience. Personally, I also like "Show HN" where a startup CEO/tech lead gets flak, but also has the chance to expose his product. A more imminent concern is that, given the increased news frequency in the last one or two years, many stories don't make it to the home page, and don't get the coverage they deserve. Also, HN is somewhat prone to ring voting, and I guess this is almost impossible to get under control, though it's not too bad IMHO. Both of these issues could be seen as inviting growth hacking or worse: the first one to shadow negative publicity (a trick as old as the soccer world championship); the second one, obviously, by making public reception appear in favour of something, when in reality it's everything but. Ok there's one issue I'm having with HN: too many pieces about machine learning/big data, and stories being predictably offtopic'd by functional programming nerds (but it's par for the course on HN, ycombinator and all).
- deleted 8y ago
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empath75 8y ago
They’re obviously going work in favor of y-combinator. Did anyone ever doubt that?

Do they actually moderate stuff which is negative about YC? I don't think I've ever seen it. What does happen, in my opinion, is that negative comments get down voted into oblivion, which kind of makes sense. The objective aspect is that they generally make for low quality conversations and the subjective aspect is that you're complaining about people's livelihood (the age old: "you can not rely on a person understanding something if their salary depends on them not understanding it").

ceejayoz 8y ago
> Do they actually moderate stuff which is negative about YC? I don't think I've ever seen it. > What does happen, in my opinion, is that negative comments get down voted into oblivion, which kind of makes sense. "Downvoted into oblivion" would be precisely how I'd quietly moderate stuff I didn't want showing up on the site. Not saying it's happening, but "I don't think I've ever seen it" would be precisely the intended result.

codetrotter 8y ago

Nothing? I’ve seen negative news about YC funded companies on the front page many times, and I think I’ve seen some articles that were being critical of YC somehow too. So I don’t think they abuse their powers for censoring negative news. Besides, HN is not the product, nor is it primarily meant to market the YC backed companies I think. HN is a forum for the startup community and its primary function for YC I think is to be a channel to attract people to YC.

sevensor 8y ago
> Besides, HN is not the product, nor is it primarily meant to market the YC backed companies I think. HN is a forum for the startup community and its primary function for YC I think is to be a channel to attract people to YC. Exactly -- provable, heavy-handed suppression of criticism by the moderators would undermine this goal. Instead, the community itself exerts a drag on direct criticism of YC and its companies by giving it less attention than other material. (With some notable exceptions.) And that's fine -- I can and do find such material on other fora which have their own biases.

albertgoeswoof 8y ago

HN is run by YC so is obviously going to be biased. But that's ok because you know that it's presenting a biased viewpoint and can balance it appropriately. Free newspapers masquerade as a balanced source and it's not always obvious who they're owned by and why they're free.

tannhaeuser 8y ago

We all know HN runs the occasional job ad and promotional piece, but I find it acceptable given the educated target audience. Personally, I also like "Show HN" where a startup CEO/tech lead gets flak, but also has the chance to expose his product. A more imminent concern is that, given the increased news frequency in the last one or two years, many stories don't make it to the home page, and don't get the coverage they deserve. Also, HN is somewhat prone to ring voting, and I guess this is almost impossible to get under control, though it's not too bad IMHO. Both of these issues could be seen as inviting growth hacking or worse: the first one to shadow negative publicity (a trick as old as the soccer world championship); the second one, obviously, by making public reception appear in favour of something, when in reality it's everything but. Ok there's one issue I'm having with HN: too many pieces about machine learning/big data, and stories being predictably offtopic'd by functional programming nerds (but it's par for the course on HN, ycombinator and all).

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

empath75 8y ago

They’re obviously going work in favor of y-combinator. Did anyone ever doubt that?