4 ms·

The flood of articles about this topic hitting the front page, and the flood of comments on those articles full of conspiratorial thinking, have been surprising

The flood of articles about this topic hitting the front page, and the flood of comments on those articles full of conspiratorial thinking, have been surprising. Even during the election, the controversy following the election, and the Capitol riot, the front page didn't get taken over by a flood of articles. Something is different this time. It was not good. I hope it won't happen again. The moderators on this site do great work, and I'm sure this caught them by surprise and they did their best. I hope a controversy like the one that happened with WSB and Robin Hood in the past few days will not be able to take over this site to such an extent again.

mancerayder 6y ago
Your criteria for moderating/censorship is that the post suggests a conspiracy? Are you not worried the scope might be wider than intended and the net cast snag ideas tagged as conspiracies that aren't or are later discovered to not be? Or is the criteria that it's a negative and implicates mainstream institutions? I'm asking an honest question in good faith because I'm nervous at people conflating fringe ideas and extremist ideology with merely non mainstream ideas or suggestions.
- twblalock 6y ago
  There were quite a few stories about this on the front page (many of which were duplicates), and a frenzy of posters positing conspiracy theories in the comments to those posts -- stuff like accusing Robin Hood of being paid off by hedge funds, general conspiracies about market manipulation and rigging, and trolls posting WSB-style content. If I want to see a flood of fake news and conspiracy theories there are plenty of other places to go. HN is not supposed to be the kind of site where that happens. Somehow the norms that prevented that from happening before on this site, even during times of extreme political controversy, have been broken.
  - mancerayder 6y ago
    I don't think it was that bad. Also, do you have a better option?

mancerayder 6y ago

Your criteria for moderating/censorship is that the post suggests a conspiracy? Are you not worried the scope might be wider than intended and the net cast snag ideas tagged as conspiracies that aren't or are later discovered to not be? Or is the criteria that it's a negative and implicates mainstream institutions? I'm asking an honest question in good faith because I'm nervous at people conflating fringe ideas and extremist ideology with merely non mainstream ideas or suggestions.

twblalock 6y ago
There were quite a few stories about this on the front page (many of which were duplicates), and a frenzy of posters positing conspiracy theories in the comments to those posts -- stuff like accusing Robin Hood of being paid off by hedge funds, general conspiracies about market manipulation and rigging, and trolls posting WSB-style content. If I want to see a flood of fake news and conspiracy theories there are plenty of other places to go. HN is not supposed to be the kind of site where that happens. Somehow the norms that prevented that from happening before on this site, even during times of extreme political controversy, have been broken.
- mancerayder 6y ago
  I don't think it was that bad. Also, do you have a better option?