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Folks are replying to you saying that HN has the same problems. I don’t entirely disagree with them, but I do think that Reddit is much worse. It may be the mo

Folks are replying to you saying that HN has the same problems. I don’t entirely disagree with them, but I do think that Reddit is much worse. It may be the more conscious moderation style on HN, but it’s much more likely you’re going to get interesting content and thoughtful discussions here than on most subreddits, particularly those that show up on r/all or r/popular. HN definitely has issues with performative intellectualism and people being unnecessarily argumentative, but I don’t think equating it with reddit is accurate.

alden_penny 6y ago
HN is more of an echo chamber than reddit because the moderation can be effectively done by just dan and there's no subreddit niches on HN to allow diversity of opinions.
- andreareina 6y ago
  Would you care to support your accusation with evidence?
- buzzerbetrayed 6y ago
  If you had said something like that about u/gallowboob on a top subreddit on Reddit, your comment would have been deleted within minutes. The fact that your comment here isn’t deleted is a testament to how wrong your comment is.
  - alden_penny 6y ago
    Sample size 1, great argument buddy. Go look at all the comments that get flagged every day, not for being inflammatory, but just for being unpopular. And unlike reddit you can't even read them on HN after they die. They're so afraid of dissenting narrative enough downvotes means deletion.
    - dredmorbius 6y ago
      https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=alden_penny https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=alden_penny Set "show dead" == "yes". (For other users: your own account page.)
- matheusmoreira 6y ago
  HN usually allows controversial comments to stand as long as they don't generate poor discussion. Sticking to the facts, presenting evidence and avoiding broad generalization helps. People often talk about controversial topics without being censored. Many Reddit moderators straight up ban people who post stuff they don't agree with.
- _curious_ 6y ago
  How could the HN mod roles/power/relationship improve in your opinion?
- dredmorbius 6y ago
  In theory, yes. In practice, who the editor is and how they execute the task matters tremendously. There's a frequent mantra by a certain segment of the population, tending to "but who should judge?", or the more pointed "what gives you the right to judge?" My answer to the first is "someone who's quite good at it, and takes the responsibility seriously". To the second: "who are you to say I cannot?" We are all judgement-making machines, so long as we have a functioning intellect. We're trying to fit our heads around an external reality, and, generally, make better rather than worse choices. I'm a fan of systems with checks and balances, with principle, and with transparency. HN scores well on some points, less so on. others (notably transparency). A problem with transparency reports is that excessive detail is tedious and cantip off malevolent actors, insufficient can hide many sins.
krapp 6y ago
Comparing Hacker News with mainstream and general discussion subreddits is misleading, as is comparing it to Reddit as a whole. Obviously Reddit is going to come up worse in every conceivable metric (although, also, better) simply because of scale. A more accurate comparison would be between HN and niche subreddit of roughly equal size and traffic. Not that I am or am willing to put in the work to make such a comparison, but I suspect the quality differential then would be smaller than a lot of people assume.
dredmorbius 6y ago
2 HN mods control 100% of fourums! (And, generally, do an excellent job in my view. Not perfect, but it's a difficult, unending, and greatly-underthanked task.)
- _curious_ 6y ago
  In your view, should there be more or how could the HN mod system improve?
  - samdixon 6y ago
    Not OP, but it would be nice in my opinion if we knew a title was edited (either by mods or OP). It's weird to me when a post has been up for hours and the title gets edited. Can totally change the context of the comments.
    - _curious_ 6y ago
      Agreed. This wouldn't be difficult to implement would it?

alden_penny 6y ago

HN is more of an echo chamber than reddit because the moderation can be effectively done by just dan and there's no subreddit niches on HN to allow diversity of opinions.

andreareina 6y ago
Would you care to support your accusation with evidence?
buzzerbetrayed 6y ago
If you had said something like that about u/gallowboob on a top subreddit on Reddit, your comment would have been deleted within minutes. The fact that your comment here isn’t deleted is a testament to how wrong your comment is.
- alden_penny 6y ago
  Sample size 1, great argument buddy. Go look at all the comments that get flagged every day, not for being inflammatory, but just for being unpopular. And unlike reddit you can't even read them on HN after they die. They're so afraid of dissenting narrative enough downvotes means deletion.
  - dredmorbius 6y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=alden_penny https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=alden_penny Set "show dead" == "yes". (For other users: your own account page.)
matheusmoreira 6y ago
HN usually allows controversial comments to stand as long as they don't generate poor discussion. Sticking to the facts, presenting evidence and avoiding broad generalization helps. People often talk about controversial topics without being censored. Many Reddit moderators straight up ban people who post stuff they don't agree with.
_curious_ 6y ago
How could the HN mod roles/power/relationship improve in your opinion?
dredmorbius 6y ago
In theory, yes. In practice, who the editor is and how they execute the task matters tremendously. There's a frequent mantra by a certain segment of the population, tending to "but who should judge?", or the more pointed "what gives you the right to judge?" My answer to the first is "someone who's quite good at it, and takes the responsibility seriously". To the second: "who are you to say I cannot?" We are all judgement-making machines, so long as we have a functioning intellect. We're trying to fit our heads around an external reality, and, generally, make better rather than worse choices. I'm a fan of systems with checks and balances, with principle, and with transparency. HN scores well on some points, less so on. others (notably transparency). A problem with transparency reports is that excessive detail is tedious and cantip off malevolent actors, insufficient can hide many sins.

krapp 6y ago

Comparing Hacker News with mainstream and general discussion subreddits is misleading, as is comparing it to Reddit as a whole. Obviously Reddit is going to come up worse in every conceivable metric (although, also, better) simply because of scale. A more accurate comparison would be between HN and niche subreddit of roughly equal size and traffic. Not that I am or am willing to put in the work to make such a comparison, but I suspect the quality differential then would be smaller than a lot of people assume.

dredmorbius 6y ago

2 HN mods control 100% of fourums! (And, generally, do an excellent job in my view. Not perfect, but it's a difficult, unending, and greatly-underthanked task.)

_curious_ 6y ago
In your view, should there be more or how could the HN mod system improve?
- samdixon 6y ago
  Not OP, but it would be nice in my opinion if we knew a title was edited (either by mods or OP). It's weird to me when a post has been up for hours and the title gets edited. Can totally change the context of the comments.
  - _curious_ 6y ago
    Agreed. This wouldn't be difficult to implement would it?