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Even pg seems to participate in political discussions: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2571608 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2571608. So I don't see

by kmfrk 15y ago

Even pg seems to participate in political discussions: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2571608 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2571608. So I don't see how anything can be done about it. I keep flagging away at articles, but I don't know how those are used for moderation. I have said it once, and I'll say it again: problems like these require a strong moderator presence and consistent moderation to be fixed - if they are deemed problems by the moderators at all.

tptacek 15y ago
To my mind, that's the worst thing about political stories. They're sneaky. Every once in awhile, one comes around that grabs you by the neck and demands a response. Now you've (a) subtly psychologically committed yourself to discussing that topic on HN in the future and (b) sent a message widening the scope of inquiry on HN. Does Paul Graham really believe Robert Reich editorials are within HN's scope? Organized-labor appreciatin' liberal Democrat speakin': of course they aren't.
- crux_ 15y ago
  This is not quite the same thing as "politics" but when it comes to certain issues under discussion I often feel like I'm forced into a choice between: * A unequivocal angry response, * Leaving the community entirely. This is because on certain topics there are loud elements of the "hacker" community whom I disagree with so fundamentally that I simply cannot tolerate their viewpoints going unchallenged. I've been able to mostly unlearn this reaction when it comes to actual politics, but on race or (much more frequently, here) gender issues it remains fully in effect. To a certain extent, I'm at wits' end: I get a lot of value out of HN but when a topic like http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2571874 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2571874 comes up it absolutely destroys my mood and my productivity. And there's no good answer -- stories like that absolutely should be discussed; it's just that the discussion so often disgusts me... (Edit: all of that rambling is to say that politics stories naturally have the same siren call of some sort of 'moral' obligation to speak up for one's point of view.)
  - tptacek 15y ago
    The sexual harassment story was so over-the-top that it didn't bother me in a "sign of the times" way. I feel bad for some of the people who chimed in to defend the man-o-centric maleocracy on that thread, because I'm confident that 98% of this community --- and closer to 99.9% of the subset of this community that hires people or Pays Money For Things --- finds those threads repellent. But I know the feeling; I'm the same way on the piracy threads, and I know from private conversations with other "well respected" HN people that I'm not the only person that gets exasperated by some of the most popular ethics on HN.

by kmfrk 15y ago

tptacek 15y ago

To my mind, that's the worst thing about political stories. They're sneaky. Every once in awhile, one comes around that grabs you by the neck and demands a response. Now you've (a) subtly psychologically committed yourself to discussing that topic on HN in the future and (b) sent a message widening the scope of inquiry on HN. Does Paul Graham really believe Robert Reich editorials are within HN's scope? Organized-labor appreciatin' liberal Democrat speakin': of course they aren't.

crux_ 15y ago
This is not quite the same thing as "politics" but when it comes to certain issues under discussion I often feel like I'm forced into a choice between: * A unequivocal angry response, * Leaving the community entirely. This is because on certain topics there are loud elements of the "hacker" community whom I disagree with so fundamentally that I simply cannot tolerate their viewpoints going unchallenged. I've been able to mostly unlearn this reaction when it comes to actual politics, but on race or (much more frequently, here) gender issues it remains fully in effect. To a certain extent, I'm at wits' end: I get a lot of value out of HN but when a topic like http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2571874 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2571874 comes up it absolutely destroys my mood and my productivity. And there's no good answer -- stories like that absolutely should be discussed; it's just that the discussion so often disgusts me... (Edit: all of that rambling is to say that politics stories naturally have the same siren call of some sort of 'moral' obligation to speak up for one's point of view.)
- tptacek 15y ago
  The sexual harassment story was so over-the-top that it didn't bother me in a "sign of the times" way. I feel bad for some of the people who chimed in to defend the man-o-centric maleocracy on that thread, because I'm confident that 98% of this community --- and closer to 99.9% of the subset of this community that hires people or Pays Money For Things --- finds those threads repellent. But I know the feeling; I'm the same way on the piracy threads, and I know from private conversations with other "well respected" HN people that I'm not the only person that gets exasperated by some of the most popular ethics on HN.