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In the times we are in, one cannot separate politics from tech, have to really reconsider whether to continue using HN since I strongly believe we in the tech c
by danielblazevski 8y ago
In the times we are in, one cannot separate politics from tech, have to really reconsider whether to continue using HN since I strongly believe we in the tech community should have more not less discussion about such issues.
Why can't HN be a place were we nerd out over new frameworks but engage in partisan political discussion over the impact of what we build?
- danielblazevski 8y agologged out, deleted my phone app and removed HN bookmarks from browsers.
- dang 8y agoMany politicized topics appear on HN. That's inevitable and it's fine. The problem is that people start doing political battle in the threads: flaming each other, bashing their enemies, and so on. That turns the threads into flamewars, which are aptly named because, like fire, they consume everything. We can't allow that; it would destroy HN's mandate, i.e. the gratification of intellectual curiosity. So we have to moderate. The values by which we do that are at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. The goal isn't to eliminate political discussion from HN, but to prevent the community from destroying itself. One reason people want to have political discussion here is that HN hasn't already destroyed itself for thoughtful, substantive conversation. This attraction makes it particularly vulnerable, so we all have to be careful. It's ok to comment on politics, but not ok to do it in the usual browbeating way.
- hueving 8y agoYes we can separate it. You've just likely never personally dealt with someone in a high US office that you've disagreed with so you're venting on every outlet available to you.