> "As evidenced by the fairly vibrant discussion here, it seems like far from a resolved issue." As the population of a group grows, the number of people who a

> "As evidenced by the fairly vibrant discussion here, it seems like far from a resolved issue." As the population of a group grows, the number of people who are dissatisfied with the situation is almost guaranteed to grow as well. That being the case, I'm not sure what resolved looks like. Yes, rules and behavior change over time, and need to as the population changes. And HN has changed over time. Those that aren't satisfied are the ones most likely to be vocal about it, which is why threads and posts like this come up again and again. Some discussion is good. HN members also have to respect what HN is and what HN isn't. 'dang is charged with keeping HN in the spirit of what HN should be. (I'm purposefully not defining what that is because it's not up to me to decide that. And describing a community is a non-trivial thing I'm sure to get wrong ;)) Continued, repeated discussion of topics involving the rules is decidedly not what HN is supposed to be. It's uninteresting and actively drives away people who are otherwise interested in having discussions. Suppressing or censoring or moderating or curating or whatever term you choose to use is one of the ways HN (and really any community) keeps its character. HN can't be all things to all people, and while it may not be perfect, it can definitely be worse. It's been particularly remarkable that recently there have been a number of threads (and an entire post!) where people have expressed their appreciation for HN and in particular it's moderation. There's wide spectrum of people's feelings about HN, not at all surprising given the size of its population. The reason I pointed you at the archives was so that you could learn about the arguments that have been made before, see what 'dang and other moderators and members have said in the past, and see if there is anything new or has changed. That would be one way that this wouldn't be a rehashing and could make a difference. And yes, having the same arguments again and again is boring, and more than that, it distracts from other interesting conversations. The HN of today is the result of HN's history, which includes its moderation by both mods and members. I appreciate the desire to want to make it even better: I share that desire. I also want to respect what HN is, and its history, and how to affect improvements keeping those well in mind. I hesitate to post this as I don't want to continue to add to the rehashing and you've already been in touch with 'dang, and his feedback is going to be much more on point than anything I can say. But I also don't want you to think that there aren't those who think about this as much as you do and come to different (I'm not saying correct, but different) conclusions. Have a great weekend!