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I do find the "censorship by private companies" discussions particularly interesting as a number of comments seem to overlook that we're conversing this very to

I do find the "censorship by private companies" discussions particularly interesting as a number of comments seem to overlook that we're conversing this very topic on a heavily censored and moderated forum that tailors its permitted content either directly (moderators) or indirectly (users downvoting). Its content, moderation, and selection are the primary reasons we enjoy visiting this site and having discussions. Articles get flagged on a weekly basis, and most (all?) probably for good reason. Is that unwarranted censorship, or a core component of what makes this website "successful"?

thu2111 6y ago
Weekly? Try daily or hourly. I routinely read HN starting at https://news.ycombinator.com/active https://news.ycombinator.com/active which shows flagged stories and I have showdead switched on, exactly because I don't trust the moderation here. All kinds of interesting and useful stories get flagged for no obvious reason at all. HN's own guidelines are very vague and contradictory. I'm sure the mods just erase stuff outright too, but unfortunately there aren't really many better forums out there - subreddits are hardly a paragon of transparent and fair moderation. Slashdot got it the most right even so many years ago but the site has been abandoned and was decaying for a long time. It's just unpleasant to use these days (not because of the comments).
- ShorsHammer 6y ago
  I don't really agree with your position here, despite having (what I think to to be) reasonable comments flagged or warned a bit. They do ok to keep a balance in this place. That said, publicmodlogs are a boon for subreddit transparency and is certainly a move in the right direction to counter conscious and unconscious biasing in online forums. It's a bright spot in the murky world of volunteer reddit moderation https://www.reddit.com/r/publicmodlogs/ https://www.reddit.com/r/publicmodlogs/

thu2111 6y ago

Weekly? Try daily or hourly. I routinely read HN starting at https://news.ycombinator.com/active https://news.ycombinator.com/active which shows flagged stories and I have showdead switched on, exactly because I don't trust the moderation here. All kinds of interesting and useful stories get flagged for no obvious reason at all. HN's own guidelines are very vague and contradictory. I'm sure the mods just erase stuff outright too, but unfortunately there aren't really many better forums out there - subreddits are hardly a paragon of transparent and fair moderation. Slashdot got it the most right even so many years ago but the site has been abandoned and was decaying for a long time. It's just unpleasant to use these days (not because of the comments).

ShorsHammer 6y ago
I don't really agree with your position here, despite having (what I think to to be) reasonable comments flagged or warned a bit. They do ok to keep a balance in this place. That said, publicmodlogs are a boon for subreddit transparency and is certainly a move in the right direction to counter conscious and unconscious biasing in online forums. It's a bright spot in the murky world of volunteer reddit moderation https://www.reddit.com/r/publicmodlogs/ https://www.reddit.com/r/publicmodlogs/