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Do you really feel that people here don't allow opposing viewpoints? IMO that is an area where Hacker News shines, especially in comparison to sites like Reddit

Do you really feel that people here don't allow opposing viewpoints? IMO that is an area where Hacker News shines, especially in comparison to sites like Reddit. I rarely see, respectful, well thought out counter-viewpoints downvoted simply for disagreeing.

brokenmachine 7y ago
I have showdead on, and often see dead comments where I don't understand what the problem is with them. I'd say it's about 10% of dead comments where I would understand if they were just dimmed, but they're dead so you can't upvote to help resurrect them, and you can't reply.
- yesenadam 7y ago
  If you have the time, could you link to a few (or lots) of these dead comments with absolutely nothing wrong with them? Thanks.
  - brokenmachine 7y ago
    This is just the first one I thought of, not the greatest example but should serve to demonstrate: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20600442 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20600442 >And then when people will inevitably start wanting better home security (I'm thinking armored doors and such, not hackable "smart" locks) as a consequence of this, the government will start whining about not being able to break into people's homes as easily when they look for someone. It's not aggressive or rude, and it does add something to the discussion (some other possible consequences of the things being discussed). No reason IMO for that comment to be dead. I'll try to add more as I see them. edit: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20599625 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20599625 >My federal tax bill is $50k per year. That means I'm spending $50k/year for my government to murder people, and spy on me, in my name. How sociopathic is that? Our money is being used to oppress is, and most people are just like "wow! neat-o tech!" edit2: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20615725 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20615725 >Where does using an ally's spy agency to circumvent being unable to target US Citizens fall on that list? edit3: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20583625 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20583625 >1. Expose the Government. 2. Run from the Government. 3. Profit. I thought that one was funny. edit4: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20542119 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20542119 >If it means free video sharing (YouTube), photo hosting and messaging (Facebook), and career network (LinkedIn), yes, I'll gladly pay the small probability I'm collateral damage of a spy game. I personally disagree with this opinion, but I don't see why it should be a dead comment. They are just saying that they are willing to accept the risks in exchange for the convenience. Not a popular position on hn, but in truth going by the success of companies that sell our data, this must actually be the majority opinion of our population. All of the memorable unfairly dead comments to me are ones that some people may disagree with, but do seem to add something to the discussion. Looks to me like [dead] is being used to disagree.
    - allenbrunson 7y ago
      you mentioned this as an example non-offensive comment that is nonetheless dead: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20600442 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20600442 the reason it is dead is because the person who made it recently got banned for bad behavior. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20582828 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20582828 i'm not going to go through all of your examples, but this should hopefully be enough of a nudge to indicate that you have to look at the bigger picture.
      - brokenmachine 7y ago
        Odd that previously-ok comments go dead when the poster is subsequently banned. I wouldn't have expected that to happen.
        allenbrunson 7y ago
        no, that didn't happen here. the user got banned first. the comment you noticed came after that. every comment that user makes after getting banned starts out dead, but can be vouched back to life, if somebody thinks it is worthy.
        brokenmachine 7y ago
        Aah. That makes sense.
- dang 7y ago
  > they're dead so you can't upvote to help resurrect them That's why we added the vouching feature. If there's a comment that's [dead] that shouldn't be, you can vouch for it by clicking on its timestamp and then clicking 'vouch' at the top of its page. When enough users vouch for a comment, it is restored to visibility. (There's a small karma threshold before vouch links appear.)
  - brokenmachine 7y ago
    Oh, thanks. I'll look for it next time.

brokenmachine 7y ago

I have showdead on, and often see dead comments where I don't understand what the problem is with them. I'd say it's about 10% of dead comments where I would understand if they were just dimmed, but they're dead so you can't upvote to help resurrect them, and you can't reply.

yesenadam 7y ago
If you have the time, could you link to a few (or lots) of these dead comments with absolutely nothing wrong with them? Thanks.
- brokenmachine 7y ago
  This is just the first one I thought of, not the greatest example but should serve to demonstrate: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20600442 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20600442 >And then when people will inevitably start wanting better home security (I'm thinking armored doors and such, not hackable "smart" locks) as a consequence of this, the government will start whining about not being able to break into people's homes as easily when they look for someone. It's not aggressive or rude, and it does add something to the discussion (some other possible consequences of the things being discussed). No reason IMO for that comment to be dead. I'll try to add more as I see them. edit: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20599625 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20599625 >My federal tax bill is $50k per year. That means I'm spending $50k/year for my government to murder people, and spy on me, in my name. How sociopathic is that? Our money is being used to oppress is, and most people are just like "wow! neat-o tech!" edit2: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20615725 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20615725 >Where does using an ally's spy agency to circumvent being unable to target US Citizens fall on that list? edit3: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20583625 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20583625 >1. Expose the Government. 2. Run from the Government. 3. Profit. I thought that one was funny. edit4: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20542119 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20542119 >If it means free video sharing (YouTube), photo hosting and messaging (Facebook), and career network (LinkedIn), yes, I'll gladly pay the small probability I'm collateral damage of a spy game. I personally disagree with this opinion, but I don't see why it should be a dead comment. They are just saying that they are willing to accept the risks in exchange for the convenience. Not a popular position on hn, but in truth going by the success of companies that sell our data, this must actually be the majority opinion of our population. All of the memorable unfairly dead comments to me are ones that some people may disagree with, but do seem to add something to the discussion. Looks to me like [dead] is being used to disagree.
  - allenbrunson 7y ago
    you mentioned this as an example non-offensive comment that is nonetheless dead: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20600442 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20600442 the reason it is dead is because the person who made it recently got banned for bad behavior. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20582828 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20582828 i'm not going to go through all of your examples, but this should hopefully be enough of a nudge to indicate that you have to look at the bigger picture.
    - brokenmachine 7y ago
      Odd that previously-ok comments go dead when the poster is subsequently banned. I wouldn't have expected that to happen.
      - allenbrunson 7y ago
        no, that didn't happen here. the user got banned first. the comment you noticed came after that. every comment that user makes after getting banned starts out dead, but can be vouched back to life, if somebody thinks it is worthy.
        brokenmachine 7y ago
        Aah. That makes sense.
dang 7y ago
> they're dead so you can't upvote to help resurrect them That's why we added the vouching feature. If there's a comment that's [dead] that shouldn't be, you can vouch for it by clicking on its timestamp and then clicking 'vouch' at the top of its page. When enough users vouch for a comment, it is restored to visibility. (There's a small karma threshold before vouch links appear.)
- brokenmachine 7y ago
  Oh, thanks. I'll look for it next time.