_I'd prefer if HN was unmoderated._ That is very interesting. You do not seem naïve, so I infer you you are well aware of the social dynamics at play in an unm

_I'd prefer if HN was unmoderated._ That is very interesting. You do not seem naïve, so I infer you you are well aware of the social dynamics at play in an unmoderated forum. On such a site, if I say that attacking Mr. Dash for being an asshole itself is an ad hominem, somebody is going to say, "STFU, Nigger!" A bunch of other people, whether because they're racists, or just enjoy the spectacle, will upvote that comment and downvote me to obscurity. Somebody else will say, "Incorrect. He's not a nigger, he's a mulatto." A third person will play along as the straight man. "What's the difference?" The reply will come by swift rickshaw: "About twelve dollars in confederate scrip," and will get upvotes galore. A follow-up will say, "Nigger, mulatto, whatever, they're all going to the ovens if they won't relocate out of the white settlements." Communities that stop moderating quickly become toxic, because even the smallest amount of toxicity drives un-toxic people away, and attracts toxic people, and without anything to stop it, the trend accelerates, until the site is dumpster fire. And it's not just the comments. People would get away with positing all sorts of political and social stuff, "because unmoderated." Many of the people who come here for the tech would leave, because this would no longer be tech-heavy. The "truthiness" of the front page would slide rapidly as the site becomes an echo chamber, until it would be unrecognizable as Hacker News in anything except name. I presume you know that, so I also presume that what you mean is, you prefer a site where we would never have this conversation, because I would no longer be here. In fact, nobody would have this conversation, because everybody here would be united in their contempt of Mr. Dash, anyone like him, and anyone who doesn't immediately denounce anything he says on the basis of him saying it. --- I am tempted to indulge in a little fallacious reasoning myself and say that what you want is not a "True Hacker News," because it would quickly become a completely different site with different people, talking about different things, in a completely different tone of voice. But perhaps I am wrong, and what you want is all the same people, talking about the same things, but without anybody getting banned or any posts being killed. If so... I don't think that is a stable state. Moderation is a local maxima, dumpster fire is another local maxima, and everything in between eventually gets pulled to one of the two stable states.