4 ms·

@dang - is this acceptable on HN? It would really help to understand which groups we’re able to attack and which are frowned upon.

Stratoscope 8y ago
I'm not Dan, but I can offer my own advice: don't generalize individuals into groups, and don't attack any individual or group here. It never leads to the kind of thoughtful discussion that HN is known for. If you see a comment that attacks any individual or group, the best thing to do is downvote it, flag it, and move on.
- sergiotapia 8y ago
  Clearly there are groups you can criticize on HN as evidenced in this entire submission's thread.
  - dang 8y ago
    The explanation is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18507863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18507863. As you can see, now that I've noticed the thread and had a chance to moderate it, the evidence shows the opposite. You've been here long enough that I wish you would be more charitable. You've made such comments before. I wouldn't ban someone just for saying false or mean things about HN moderation, but it's still a bummer. Especially since, if you'd take a longer and fairer look at what we do, you would know that it's not true.
JPKab 8y ago
Yes, I've noticed this. I said something admittedly nasty about Mao's policies a couple of months ago, and was threatened with banning due to "borderline nationalistic trolling". Fair enough. It sure doesn't seem to be enforced in an objective fashion though. More likely, it appears to be more in line with the current fashion of SV: Never discriminate, unless it's against a group viewed as being powerful and bad by West Coast Americans, in which case it's ok. American? That's definitely a way to be cool and anti-imperialist/colonialist. Christians? Even better. Because of all of the regressive religions which preach hate towards gays and deny evolution, Christianity is the one practiced by white people from Alabama, and therefore it's funny and useful to attack it. If this gentleman were an Islamic missionary from Egypt, the above comment probably would never have been made, and if it had, would be removed, with good reason.
- dang 8y ago
  It's true that HN moderation is inconsistent, but for a completely different reason: we don't see all the comments. This makes consistency impossible. All: please help with this by letting us know at hn@ycombinator.com when you see an egregious comment on the site that hasn't been flagged or moderated yet. We can't read all the comments, but we do read all the emails.
subjectsigma 8y ago
There's incredible bias here against Christians and occasionally also white Americans. Sad for a website that's A) dedicated to technology, where people are supposedly more open and accepting, and B) supposedly holding itself to a higher standard than other similar forums. My advice would be to just ignore it and flag rule violations, in my admittedly brief HN career doing anything else has never helped me nor anyone I'm replying to.
dang 8y ago
Of course it's unacceptable. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18507852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18507852

Stratoscope 8y ago

I'm not Dan, but I can offer my own advice: don't generalize individuals into groups, and don't attack any individual or group here. It never leads to the kind of thoughtful discussion that HN is known for. If you see a comment that attacks any individual or group, the best thing to do is downvote it, flag it, and move on.

sergiotapia 8y ago
Clearly there are groups you can criticize on HN as evidenced in this entire submission's thread.
- dang 8y ago
  The explanation is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18507863 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18507863. As you can see, now that I've noticed the thread and had a chance to moderate it, the evidence shows the opposite. You've been here long enough that I wish you would be more charitable. You've made such comments before. I wouldn't ban someone just for saying false or mean things about HN moderation, but it's still a bummer. Especially since, if you'd take a longer and fairer look at what we do, you would know that it's not true.

JPKab 8y ago

Yes, I've noticed this. I said something admittedly nasty about Mao's policies a couple of months ago, and was threatened with banning due to "borderline nationalistic trolling". Fair enough. It sure doesn't seem to be enforced in an objective fashion though. More likely, it appears to be more in line with the current fashion of SV: Never discriminate, unless it's against a group viewed as being powerful and bad by West Coast Americans, in which case it's ok. American? That's definitely a way to be cool and anti-imperialist/colonialist. Christians? Even better. Because of all of the regressive religions which preach hate towards gays and deny evolution, Christianity is the one practiced by white people from Alabama, and therefore it's funny and useful to attack it. If this gentleman were an Islamic missionary from Egypt, the above comment probably would never have been made, and if it had, would be removed, with good reason.

dang 8y ago
It's true that HN moderation is inconsistent, but for a completely different reason: we don't see all the comments. This makes consistency impossible. All: please help with this by letting us know at hn@ycombinator.com when you see an egregious comment on the site that hasn't been flagged or moderated yet. We can't read all the comments, but we do read all the emails.

subjectsigma 8y ago

There's incredible bias here against Christians and occasionally also white Americans. Sad for a website that's A) dedicated to technology, where people are supposedly more open and accepting, and B) supposedly holding itself to a higher standard than other similar forums. My advice would be to just ignore it and flag rule violations, in my admittedly brief HN career doing anything else has never helped me nor anyone I'm replying to.

dang 8y ago

Of course it's unacceptable. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18507852 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18507852