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> A simple forum can allow for account deletion, literally every open source forum I'm aware of does, and it doesn't require "being a full fledged company," eit

by m45t3r 7y ago

> A simple forum can allow for account deletion, literally every open source forum I'm aware of does, and it doesn't require "being a full fledged company," either. This site is written in a Lisp dialect, so it should be possible to implement a new feature in a single line in a REPL over a cup of coffee, anyway, right? ;) A simple forum also has reply notifications, that HN has not. It is difficult to accept that HN is different from other forum software, with different priorities? I don't know what being writing in Lisp implies that HN have to have some specific feature that you think it needs. > Anywhere else, having to contact a moderator to ask permission to have one's account deleted would be considered a user hostile dark pattern, nefarious motives assumed by default. But when Hacker News does it, well obviously it's just another sign of the elegance behind its design. It would be considered a dark pattern if the moderators were against deleting accounts, giving excuses or making the process unnecessary difficult. Since it seems that the moderators delete your account without bothering you, I don't think this is a dark pattern at all.

krapp 7y ago
>A simple forum also has reply notifications, that HN has not. It is difficult to accept that HN is different from other forum software, with different priorities? I don't object to the fact that this forum lacks particular features, I can accept that, although I would disagree that they would add unnecessary complexity or would somehow damage the "signal to noise" ratio of the community. I object to the tendency of people here to assume that any features this forum lacks are a priori without value because it lacks them. If they don't want to add these particular features, fine, but people need to stop cargo culting the simplicity of this forum. Some of the features here are intentionally, actively user hostile and we should admit that Hacker News gets a pass for no other reason than it's Hacker News. >I don't know what being writing in Lisp implies that HN have to have some specific feature that you think it needs. I was snarking on the way people sometimes describe how elegant and powerful Lisp is, almost as if it were magic. Sometimes I forget this place is where humor goes to die. Mea culpa.
- m45t3r 7y ago
  I am not cargo culting, however I disagree with you that not having deleting account option is “actively user hostile”. It would be if it happened like Blizzard did, disallowing users to do an account deletion. Mods seems fine to delete your account, so I don’t get why you’re saying that this is hostile to the user. I mean, if the number of users deleting account is low why bother implementing a feature in first place? If the mods were overwhelmed with requests and would start giving excuses to delete your account thanks to this, now I think the lack of account deletion in HN would be user hostile.
belltaco 7y ago
I think the lack of reply notifications is intentional, to prevent quick back and forth snarky replies like on Reddit. pg may have stated that at some point but I am not sure.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
celticmusic 7y ago
> with different priorities? The point that started this all off is that HN has different priorities and those priorities disallow you from deleting accounts. There's nothing to defend here, deleting your account is a 100% reasonable request.
- m45t3r 7y ago
  Yeah, it is. However my point is, mods seems to delete your account without any unnecessary complications, so it is fine for me to now have a feature to do this. Like I said below, it is really reasonable to not have a feature if the number of users asking to delete their accounts is manageable by mods. If it wasn’t, and thanks to this the mods would avoid deleting accounts, giving lame excuses or taking a long time, now I think the lack of this feature is user hostile.

by m45t3r 7y ago

krapp 7y ago

>A simple forum also has reply notifications, that HN has not. It is difficult to accept that HN is different from other forum software, with different priorities? I don't object to the fact that this forum lacks particular features, I can accept that, although I would disagree that they would add unnecessary complexity or would somehow damage the "signal to noise" ratio of the community. I object to the tendency of people here to assume that any features this forum lacks are a priori without value because it lacks them. If they don't want to add these particular features, fine, but people need to stop cargo culting the simplicity of this forum. Some of the features here are intentionally, actively user hostile and we should admit that Hacker News gets a pass for no other reason than it's Hacker News. >I don't know what being writing in Lisp implies that HN have to have some specific feature that you think it needs. I was snarking on the way people sometimes describe how elegant and powerful Lisp is, almost as if it were magic. Sometimes I forget this place is where humor goes to die. Mea culpa.

m45t3r 7y ago
I am not cargo culting, however I disagree with you that not having deleting account option is “actively user hostile”. It would be if it happened like Blizzard did, disallowing users to do an account deletion. Mods seems fine to delete your account, so I don’t get why you’re saying that this is hostile to the user. I mean, if the number of users deleting account is low why bother implementing a feature in first place? If the mods were overwhelmed with requests and would start giving excuses to delete your account thanks to this, now I think the lack of account deletion in HN would be user hostile.

belltaco 7y ago

I think the lack of reply notifications is intentional, to prevent quick back and forth snarky replies like on Reddit. pg may have stated that at some point but I am not sure.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

celticmusic 7y ago

> with different priorities? The point that started this all off is that HN has different priorities and those priorities disallow you from deleting accounts. There's nothing to defend here, deleting your account is a 100% reasonable request.

m45t3r 7y ago
Yeah, it is. However my point is, mods seems to delete your account without any unnecessary complications, so it is fine for me to now have a feature to do this. Like I said below, it is really reasonable to not have a feature if the number of users asking to delete their accounts is manageable by mods. If it wasn’t, and thanks to this the mods would avoid deleting accounts, giving lame excuses or taking a long time, now I think the lack of this feature is user hostile.