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An anonymous person on the internet is not credible. That's fine when the things anonymous people are posting here can be verified elsewhere, or are philosophi

An anonymous person on the internet is not credible. That's fine when the things anonymous people are posting here can be verified elsewhere, or are philosophical arguments that can be evaluated on their own merits, for example. It's not fine when it's personal accusations and gossip that can't be verified, but which people take to be true just because it seems exciting.

tempsy 6y ago
I didn’t say it was. I challenge the need to censor comments from some random anonymous poster vs taking the comment with a grain of salt but leaving it up. This pretty much mirrors the national debate we’re having about social media and censorship. I’m not in the group where I think something that can’t be definitively verified should be banned from a website. People should be skeptical, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be allowed to read something.
- detaro 6y ago
  You can read flagged comments, you just need to opt-in to do so. HN gives you that escape hatch if you don't want others saying that something isn't appropriate for HN get in the way of seeing it.
  - tempsy 6y ago
    Ok, but not really my point. I’m voicing my surprise that a forum that is primarily members of the tech community would find it appropriate or necessary to aggressively censor comments that aren’t off topic or outright personal attacks or obvious trolling. I don’t think comments from random individuals that aren’t publishers or people of interest, say a politician, should be censored just because others believe they are saying something that can’t be verified, in bad taste, speculative, or not backed by evidence. Take comments like that with a grain of salt. Don’t upvote it. Let people decide for themselves how much weight to put into a comment like that. To flag it so it can’t be read is to make that decision for others.

tempsy 6y ago

I didn’t say it was. I challenge the need to censor comments from some random anonymous poster vs taking the comment with a grain of salt but leaving it up. This pretty much mirrors the national debate we’re having about social media and censorship. I’m not in the group where I think something that can’t be definitively verified should be banned from a website. People should be skeptical, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be allowed to read something.

detaro 6y ago
You can read flagged comments, you just need to opt-in to do so. HN gives you that escape hatch if you don't want others saying that something isn't appropriate for HN get in the way of seeing it.
- tempsy 6y ago
  Ok, but not really my point. I’m voicing my surprise that a forum that is primarily members of the tech community would find it appropriate or necessary to aggressively censor comments that aren’t off topic or outright personal attacks or obvious trolling. I don’t think comments from random individuals that aren’t publishers or people of interest, say a politician, should be censored just because others believe they are saying something that can’t be verified, in bad taste, speculative, or not backed by evidence. Take comments like that with a grain of salt. Don’t upvote it. Let people decide for themselves how much weight to put into a comment like that. To flag it so it can’t be read is to make that decision for others.