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The story you linked above, with over 170 upvotes and less than a day old appears nowhere on the first 5 pages of HN. It's hard to imagine HN suppressing any s

The story you linked above, with over 170 upvotes and less than a day old appears nowhere on the first 5 pages of HN. It's hard to imagine HN suppressing any similar story from a similarly credible source about a million people being detained in any predominantly white or English-speaking country. There's a lot of money for YC to make in China, but this is a million human lives. Please at least try to think about that. (And yes, the story is certainly drawing flags from Chinese patriots and wumaodang alike)

dang 8y ago
That doesn't reflect how HN is moderated at all. Your claim about who's flagging is equally made-up. Edit: the claim in your profile is also completely untrue. In fact you have a long history of making things up about HN moderation, posting them, and continuing to repeat the false claims when corrected. You also have a long history of using HN for political battle about China. If you keep abusing the site this way, we're eventually going to ban you. Dramatic allegations about "censorship" and "suppression" don't immunize you against having to follow the rules like other users.
- whatyoucantsay 8y ago
  The comment was specifically directed at you and it was an appeal to conscience. > "In fact you have a long history of making things up about HN moderation, posting them, and continuing to repeat the false claims when corrected." That's quite a claim. Outsiders are not privy to your moderation actions, the weighting algorithms of the site or who is flagging which stories. Conjectures about an opaque system aren't fabrications. They're good faith conjectures. What can be known is which stories have comments from mods saying they've turned off flags. Many address political and cultural issues of Silicon Valley, which is essentially the first world of the first world. > "You also have a long history of using HN for political battle about China." What I attempt to do is voice minority opinions that I believe are true. Nothing more, except a deep concern for human rights which unfortunately does tend to intersect with news about China. It's admirable to address the authoritarianism and even ethnonationalism of the US administration, as your team has. It's also absurd to simultaneously label any discussion of far more authoriarian and ethnonationalism of the CCP or others as "political battle". Absolutely nothing in my comment above was "political battle". I saw a thread about the detention of a million human beings with over 170 upvotes that was already buried in less than a day and commented. It's sad so many can be so worked up about the struggles of some of the most advantaged people in the world and yet be numb to the detention of so large a number of our human cousins while their families are forced to house government minders. Financial incentives cannot prove any wrong-doing of course, but they are corrosive. I believe the point of the previous comment likely stands, but these two questions should illuminate: 1) Has HN ever (whether through automated or other means) quickly buried any similarly popular story about people in a western country being similarly wronged at this scale? 2) Can you truthfully deny that YC has had any dealings with the Chinese government or state-owned enterprises, or has any economic incentives at stake in dealing with news the CCP doesn't like? If the answer to either is yes, I'll gladly apologize and retract the comment (but not my sympathy for the subjects of this BBC article). Edit: this comment on a week-old post, which breaks no site guidelines AFAICT, was flagged in under an hour. :/
- whatyoucantsay 8y ago
  Seeing good-faith comments which break no rules I'm aware of being flagged is truly disappointing. It's your forum and if you choose rule by law rather than rule of law, I am powerless to improve the situation. In ten years time, if you remember any of this, I hope that you might have a new perspective this topic.
  - dang 8y ago
    Users flagged the comment. No moderator touched it. It's time you stopped posting these tedious harangues, which baselessly insinuate corruption while sneakily pretending to be fair-minded ("cannot prove any wrong-doing of course").
    - whatyoucantsay 8y ago
      Nothing sneaky is involved. Like you and most people, I believe I am fair minded. There's no pretending involved, either. It is very surprising users would have even seen a comment buried deep in an old thread within minutes, but it is possible and I'm inclined to believe you in this case (though the next most likely case is a 五毛党 vote brigade). Nothing in the comment was a violation of guidelines, nor was the previous comment at all what it was maligned as. That said, it's now clear that the very attempt "to voice minority opinions I believe to be true" is counter to the goals of the forum. While they're ideas and issues where one voice has a relative chance of making a difference, they're also very likely to lead to flamewars. It's hard to let go of the human rights issues, especially those I've seen some of first hand, but it's not productive here. I'd be lying if I said YC's recent moves weren't terrifying, but I'll give up on voicing it in this way.

dang 8y ago

That doesn't reflect how HN is moderated at all. Your claim about who's flagging is equally made-up. Edit: the claim in your profile is also completely untrue. In fact you have a long history of making things up about HN moderation, posting them, and continuing to repeat the false claims when corrected. You also have a long history of using HN for political battle about China. If you keep abusing the site this way, we're eventually going to ban you. Dramatic allegations about "censorship" and "suppression" don't immunize you against having to follow the rules like other users.

whatyoucantsay 8y ago
The comment was specifically directed at you and it was an appeal to conscience. > "In fact you have a long history of making things up about HN moderation, posting them, and continuing to repeat the false claims when corrected." That's quite a claim. Outsiders are not privy to your moderation actions, the weighting algorithms of the site or who is flagging which stories. Conjectures about an opaque system aren't fabrications. They're good faith conjectures. What can be known is which stories have comments from mods saying they've turned off flags. Many address political and cultural issues of Silicon Valley, which is essentially the first world of the first world. > "You also have a long history of using HN for political battle about China." What I attempt to do is voice minority opinions that I believe are true. Nothing more, except a deep concern for human rights which unfortunately does tend to intersect with news about China. It's admirable to address the authoritarianism and even ethnonationalism of the US administration, as your team has. It's also absurd to simultaneously label any discussion of far more authoriarian and ethnonationalism of the CCP or others as "political battle". Absolutely nothing in my comment above was "political battle". I saw a thread about the detention of a million human beings with over 170 upvotes that was already buried in less than a day and commented. It's sad so many can be so worked up about the struggles of some of the most advantaged people in the world and yet be numb to the detention of so large a number of our human cousins while their families are forced to house government minders. Financial incentives cannot prove any wrong-doing of course, but they are corrosive. I believe the point of the previous comment likely stands, but these two questions should illuminate: 1) Has HN ever (whether through automated or other means) quickly buried any similarly popular story about people in a western country being similarly wronged at this scale? 2) Can you truthfully deny that YC has had any dealings with the Chinese government or state-owned enterprises, or has any economic incentives at stake in dealing with news the CCP doesn't like? If the answer to either is yes, I'll gladly apologize and retract the comment (but not my sympathy for the subjects of this BBC article). Edit: this comment on a week-old post, which breaks no site guidelines AFAICT, was flagged in under an hour. :/
whatyoucantsay 8y ago
Seeing good-faith comments which break no rules I'm aware of being flagged is truly disappointing. It's your forum and if you choose rule by law rather than rule of law, I am powerless to improve the situation. In ten years time, if you remember any of this, I hope that you might have a new perspective this topic.
- dang 8y ago
  Users flagged the comment. No moderator touched it. It's time you stopped posting these tedious harangues, which baselessly insinuate corruption while sneakily pretending to be fair-minded ("cannot prove any wrong-doing of course").
  - whatyoucantsay 8y ago
    Nothing sneaky is involved. Like you and most people, I believe I am fair minded. There's no pretending involved, either. It is very surprising users would have even seen a comment buried deep in an old thread within minutes, but it is possible and I'm inclined to believe you in this case (though the next most likely case is a 五毛党 vote brigade). Nothing in the comment was a violation of guidelines, nor was the previous comment at all what it was maligned as. That said, it's now clear that the very attempt "to voice minority opinions I believe to be true" is counter to the goals of the forum. While they're ideas and issues where one voice has a relative chance of making a difference, they're also very likely to lead to flamewars. It's hard to let go of the human rights issues, especially those I've seen some of first hand, but it's not productive here. I'd be lying if I said YC's recent moves weren't terrifying, but I'll give up on voicing it in this way.