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This was supposed to be originally posted on Dang's post. Evidently, criticizing the mob-boss isn't allowed now. AndyKelley never ever forget why Ycombinator r

This was supposed to be originally posted on Dang's post. Evidently, criticizing the mob-boss isn't allowed now. AndyKelley never ever forget why Ycombinator runs a "news" site. YCombinator is a propaganda and VC funnel for upcoming projects that might make them money. The convenient excuses of tone policing is to not scare away upcoming companies and orgs that might be reprehensible to the public, but fit into the idea of (0) Moloch. The SEC only requires significant transparency to Public corporations, which YC doesn't primarily work with. So, they can be as opaque and 'fake news'-ish as they wish. And they do, via "Hacker News". HN/dang has removed and/or modified and/of split off threads to lessen the impact of projects that affect them. And my guess is that V is one of those projects that caught their eye. Instead, you'll see dang and similar giving edicts from above dismissing and ignoring legitimate complaints. Why? It all boils down to money. And YC wants more. Is that really surprising? Now, why aren't I posting under my usual username? Because bans, hellbans, and other 'bad user' flags are a thing. And YC would never approach such transparency. They won't even try for the GDPR, and that's saying something. (0) https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/ ------------------------------------------- (My response, since you flagged it: If we listened to anything you've taught us, you don't do something you're good at for free. So, why do you run a news site? It's certainly not out of the goodness of your heart. My not-so-dark-idea is it benefits Ycombinator in a significant way. )

dang 7y ago
I'd happily respond, but this comment is like a greased pig: there's nothing to latch onto. Well, there's one thing: nothing about that project affects YC or HN or us, and we haven't conspired to "lessen the impact". The sinister specifics people come up with! What catches my eye is flamewars on Hacker News, because part of being a janitor is mopping those up. Our deep dark purpose? To have an internet forum that doesn't suck. Unless you have plumbed my unconscious and know my thoughts better than I do, that's all we're trying to achieve. That alone is plenty valuable, so it's all we need to optimize for. p.s. Nobody flagged your reply. It got caught in a software filter, and moderators unkilled it, as we often do.
- fogottenuser02 7y ago
  If we listened to anything you've taught us, you don't do something you're good at for free. So, why do you run a news site? It's certainly not out of the goodness of your heart. My not-so-dark-idea is it benefits Ycombinator in a significant way.
  - dang 7y ago
    Of course! But the benefits aren't small and sneaky, they're large and open. HN is valuable to YC simply by being an interesting place on the internet. The most-interesting HN is the most valuable-to-YC HN, the one that is most in YC's business interests. So curiosity is what we're optimizing for: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=by:dang%20yc%20valuable https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20curiosity%20optimiz&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... There's simplicity on the other side too: YC just optimizes for the number of great startups it can fund. How optimizing HN (by keeping it interesting) benefits YC (by helping it fund more great startups) is left as an exercise to the reader [1]. The reason we don't mess around with local optimizations is that they're a bad trade. What matters is the global optimization. Think of the goose that lays the golden eggs. If you have the goose, why focus on an egg or two? Focus on the goose. [1] Actually I'd better not, or someone will make up something nefarious. The reason is that some HN users end up founding YC-funded startups. And many are startups that might not have gotten started otherwise.
jazzyjackson 7y ago
Wow that's pretty paranoid
- fogottenuser02 7y ago
  I've been here long enough, and seen how things operate here. Sure, it's paranoid. It doesn't make it false.

dang 7y ago

I'd happily respond, but this comment is like a greased pig: there's nothing to latch onto. Well, there's one thing: nothing about that project affects YC or HN or us, and we haven't conspired to "lessen the impact". The sinister specifics people come up with! What catches my eye is flamewars on Hacker News, because part of being a janitor is mopping those up. Our deep dark purpose? To have an internet forum that doesn't suck. Unless you have plumbed my unconscious and know my thoughts better than I do, that's all we're trying to achieve. That alone is plenty valuable, so it's all we need to optimize for. p.s. Nobody flagged your reply. It got caught in a software filter, and moderators unkilled it, as we often do.

fogottenuser02 7y ago
If we listened to anything you've taught us, you don't do something you're good at for free. So, why do you run a news site? It's certainly not out of the goodness of your heart. My not-so-dark-idea is it benefits Ycombinator in a significant way.
- dang 7y ago
  Of course! But the benefits aren't small and sneaky, they're large and open. HN is valuable to YC simply by being an interesting place on the internet. The most-interesting HN is the most valuable-to-YC HN, the one that is most in YC's business interests. So curiosity is what we're optimizing for: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=false&page=0&query=by:dang%20yc%20valuable https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20curiosity%20optimiz&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... There's simplicity on the other side too: YC just optimizes for the number of great startups it can fund. How optimizing HN (by keeping it interesting) benefits YC (by helping it fund more great startups) is left as an exercise to the reader [1]. The reason we don't mess around with local optimizations is that they're a bad trade. What matters is the global optimization. Think of the goose that lays the golden eggs. If you have the goose, why focus on an egg or two? Focus on the goose. [1] Actually I'd better not, or someone will make up something nefarious. The reason is that some HN users end up founding YC-funded startups. And many are startups that might not have gotten started otherwise.

jazzyjackson 7y ago

Wow that's pretty paranoid

fogottenuser02 7y ago
I've been here long enough, and seen how things operate here. Sure, it's paranoid. It doesn't make it false.