3 ms·

Its possible that it happens, but from my admittedly limited anecdotal experience from seeing a half dozen or so people claim that they were banned for no reaso

by phaus 6y ago

Its possible that it happens, but from my admittedly limited anecdotal experience from seeing a half dozen or so people claim that they were banned for no reason and then taking a look at their comment history, they were absolutely banned for a reason. Do you have an example of someone being banned simply because they shared an unpopular opinion? Also "not true in general" implies that you seem to think that its a widespread problem and banning people simply for having an alternative opinion is one of the more common reasons people are banned. On HN that is something I find hard to believe.

timeeater 6y ago
I have been banned several times, and I am not in the habit of calling people names. At most I may call some argument "stupid". Mostly when it comes to criticizing socialism or feminism, it doesn't last long. I just tried to look up one of the old accounts where dang banned me and we even had an email discussion about it. But as the account is banned, I can not look up the comments I wrote anymore. Edit: I think I remember, often the argument is that "politics are not welcome on HN". But there are political topics on HN all the time (women in tech, worker unions at Amazon, and so on and so on). I never bring them up, but when they emerge, I sometimes join the discussion. That's when I get banned for "talking politics", even though I only comment on other people's (socialist) politics. So it is not usually about "civility", it is pretense for censoring unwanted opinions.
- kaitai 6y ago
  But that's the thing -- I'm a woman in tech. How am I political? I'm just a sack of cells like you. Are you a political topic? To get back to the parent posters, that's why I keep coming back to HN despite the unfortunately-now-expected friction of, well, comments like the one above me. (And timeeater, to be really clear, I don't care your position on feminism or socialism. The friction is that you label me talking a "political topic".) The conversation here is overall good enough to outweigh that, and I have learned a lot from conservatives/Julia programmers/people who've experienced homelessness/infosec people/homebrewers on HN.
  - TheAdamAndChe 6y ago
    You aren't political, but your identity is, just as everyone else's identity is. Paul Graham's post[1] on identity describes it much better than I could here. [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html
    - kaitai 6y ago
      But this is silly. I was born with what I was born with. Why do I have to think about it? What choice did I have in it? Religion, I can choose. Politics, I can choose. Gender? That's not my choice. To the extent it's my identity, it's forced upon me. Thanks, guys. In this thread, I'm responding to timeeater's claim that it's censorship, not incivility, that results in banning. As evidence, timeeater says that criticising feminism is 'not allowed' or suppressed. But I would argue that it's not criticism of feminism that gets timeeater in trouble, but instead the tendentious supposition that discussing women at all is "political" (to quote, "But there are political topics on HN all the time (women in tech, worker unions at Amazon, and so on and so on)."). Then timeeater goes on to make some statements about special treatment and special insights. Now that's the rabbithole of wasted pixels that Paul Graham is getting at in his essay -- it's really not germane to the discussion, and it's all bound up in an identity that is indeed chosen.
      - timeeater 6y ago
        You misinterpret my statement, that is all. I mentioned "women in tech" as an example, because those articles are usually political. They tend to be about alleged discrimination and demands for special treatment of women in tech. That is politics (special treatment of a specific group of people is a policy). If you don't do any of those things, your person is not a political issue. Also I didn't say you shouldn't be allowed to post political things like "women in tech". Hacker News policy says that, and bans people for commenting on such threads under the pretense of the policy. Stop misinterpreting my comments. And nobody is forcing you to use your body for politics. You don't have to identify as a feminist, either. Feminism is not synonymous with women.
  - 6y ago

by phaus 6y ago

timeeater 6y ago

I have been banned several times, and I am not in the habit of calling people names. At most I may call some argument "stupid". Mostly when it comes to criticizing socialism or feminism, it doesn't last long. I just tried to look up one of the old accounts where dang banned me and we even had an email discussion about it. But as the account is banned, I can not look up the comments I wrote anymore. Edit: I think I remember, often the argument is that "politics are not welcome on HN". But there are political topics on HN all the time (women in tech, worker unions at Amazon, and so on and so on). I never bring them up, but when they emerge, I sometimes join the discussion. That's when I get banned for "talking politics", even though I only comment on other people's (socialist) politics. So it is not usually about "civility", it is pretense for censoring unwanted opinions.

kaitai 6y ago
But that's the thing -- I'm a woman in tech. How am I political? I'm just a sack of cells like you. Are you a political topic? To get back to the parent posters, that's why I keep coming back to HN despite the unfortunately-now-expected friction of, well, comments like the one above me. (And timeeater, to be really clear, I don't care your position on feminism or socialism. The friction is that you label me talking a "political topic".) The conversation here is overall good enough to outweigh that, and I have learned a lot from conservatives/Julia programmers/people who've experienced homelessness/infosec people/homebrewers on HN.
- TheAdamAndChe 6y ago
  You aren't political, but your identity is, just as everyone else's identity is. Paul Graham's post[1] on identity describes it much better than I could here. [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html
  - kaitai 6y ago
    But this is silly. I was born with what I was born with. Why do I have to think about it? What choice did I have in it? Religion, I can choose. Politics, I can choose. Gender? That's not my choice. To the extent it's my identity, it's forced upon me. Thanks, guys. In this thread, I'm responding to timeeater's claim that it's censorship, not incivility, that results in banning. As evidence, timeeater says that criticising feminism is 'not allowed' or suppressed. But I would argue that it's not criticism of feminism that gets timeeater in trouble, but instead the tendentious supposition that discussing women at all is "political" (to quote, "But there are political topics on HN all the time (women in tech, worker unions at Amazon, and so on and so on)."). Then timeeater goes on to make some statements about special treatment and special insights. Now that's the rabbithole of wasted pixels that Paul Graham is getting at in his essay -- it's really not germane to the discussion, and it's all bound up in an identity that is indeed chosen.
    - timeeater 6y ago
      You misinterpret my statement, that is all. I mentioned "women in tech" as an example, because those articles are usually political. They tend to be about alleged discrimination and demands for special treatment of women in tech. That is politics (special treatment of a specific group of people is a policy). If you don't do any of those things, your person is not a political issue. Also I didn't say you shouldn't be allowed to post political things like "women in tech". Hacker News policy says that, and bans people for commenting on such threads under the pretense of the policy. Stop misinterpreting my comments. And nobody is forcing you to use your body for politics. You don't have to identify as a feminist, either. Feminism is not synonymous with women.
- 6y ago