4 ms·

Ah yes. Hard decisions about whether the new CEO will wipe his ass with that 11 billion, or use it as fuel for his fireplace. Decisions, decisions.

dang 6y ago
Could you please stop posting in the flamewar style to HN? You've been doing it repeatedly, and we ban accounts that do that because it kills the spirit of curious conversation, which this site exists for. If you wouldn't mind taking a look at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and using HN in the intended spirit, we'd appreciate it. It's understandable that temperatures rise and pots boil over, but we all need to control ourselves in those areas, or else we end up ruining this place.
- mcphage 6y ago
  > we all need to control ourselves in those areas, or else we end up ruining this place. So you don’t think attitudes like what trophycase was responding to, ruins this site? I’ve known more programmers leave this site because of ugly attitudes worded civilly and so left unchecked, than because of responses like the one you’re complaining about. I think you’re threatening to ban the wrong people.
  - lidHanteyk 6y ago
    Yeah, but like, you're asking for empathy from dang. They don't know what it's like to be an engineer on corporate salary, or how it feels to be paid a five-figure bonus for delivering a seven-figure feature. They can't reason about what is happening at Disney or other corporations, except abstractly and without an understanding of the human cost. The moderators are not here to improve the conversation. They are not here to contribute. They do not have interesting things to say. They are here to remove things and people which offend them.
  - dang 6y ago
    > So you don’t think attitudes like what trophycase was responding to, ruins this site? That doesn't follow, and I'd be careful about drawing such conclusions. It's difficult to reply meaningfully to general statements like those in your comment here, because they can actually be referring to a wide range of different things. I'd really need to see specific links. In the case of the comment trophycase was responding to (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22820206 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22820206), the fact that it was heavily downvoted already indicates a kind of community moderation, signalling that there's something objectionable about the post. The fact that I didn't reply with additional censure doesn't mean I somehow like the post or agree with it. It was a low-information comment with an ideological slant. But HN gets a huge number of those, from all ideological sides. If we were going to try to moderate all of them, first of all we couldn't because we'd be spending all our time doing nothing else, and second it would generate a massive backlash from users who don't agree that such comments clear the threshold for public scolding. (The difference between that and "Ah yes. Hard decisions about whether the new CEO will wipe his ass with that 11 billion, or use it as fuel for his fireplace. Decisions, decisions." is pretty stark. Note also that I was responding to a repeated pattern.) I'm by no means happy about such comments on HN, but there are limits, much harder limits than people assume, to what moderation power can achieve. Usually when people demand more from moderation, what they seem to want is for us to ban anyone who supports an ideology they disagree with. That's not an option for HN (even though we get accused of doing it all the time). It would kill the community, and I don't see what good that would do anyone.

dang 6y ago

Could you please stop posting in the flamewar style to HN? You've been doing it repeatedly, and we ban accounts that do that because it kills the spirit of curious conversation, which this site exists for. If you wouldn't mind taking a look at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and using HN in the intended spirit, we'd appreciate it. It's understandable that temperatures rise and pots boil over, but we all need to control ourselves in those areas, or else we end up ruining this place.

mcphage 6y ago
> we all need to control ourselves in those areas, or else we end up ruining this place. So you don’t think attitudes like what trophycase was responding to, ruins this site? I’ve known more programmers leave this site because of ugly attitudes worded civilly and so left unchecked, than because of responses like the one you’re complaining about. I think you’re threatening to ban the wrong people.
- lidHanteyk 6y ago
  Yeah, but like, you're asking for empathy from dang. They don't know what it's like to be an engineer on corporate salary, or how it feels to be paid a five-figure bonus for delivering a seven-figure feature. They can't reason about what is happening at Disney or other corporations, except abstractly and without an understanding of the human cost. The moderators are not here to improve the conversation. They are not here to contribute. They do not have interesting things to say. They are here to remove things and people which offend them.
- dang 6y ago
  > So you don’t think attitudes like what trophycase was responding to, ruins this site? That doesn't follow, and I'd be careful about drawing such conclusions. It's difficult to reply meaningfully to general statements like those in your comment here, because they can actually be referring to a wide range of different things. I'd really need to see specific links. In the case of the comment trophycase was responding to (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22820206 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22820206), the fact that it was heavily downvoted already indicates a kind of community moderation, signalling that there's something objectionable about the post. The fact that I didn't reply with additional censure doesn't mean I somehow like the post or agree with it. It was a low-information comment with an ideological slant. But HN gets a huge number of those, from all ideological sides. If we were going to try to moderate all of them, first of all we couldn't because we'd be spending all our time doing nothing else, and second it would generate a massive backlash from users who don't agree that such comments clear the threshold for public scolding. (The difference between that and "Ah yes. Hard decisions about whether the new CEO will wipe his ass with that 11 billion, or use it as fuel for his fireplace. Decisions, decisions." is pretty stark. Note also that I was responding to a repeated pattern.) I'm by no means happy about such comments on HN, but there are limits, much harder limits than people assume, to what moderation power can achieve. Usually when people demand more from moderation, what they seem to want is for us to ban anyone who supports an ideology they disagree with. That's not an option for HN (even though we get accused of doing it all the time). It would kill the community, and I don't see what good that would do anyone.