5 ms·

I don't even know what to say to that. What is ideological about what I said? My comment was entirely based on my experience with how companies treat people. H

I don't even know what to say to that. What is ideological about what I said? My comment was entirely based on my experience with how companies treat people. Honestly, it feels like you simply did not like what I stated and decided to instate your vague guidelines as reason to remove my comment. I enjoy HN and the discussions that are had here, but I don't believe that curious conversation has to consist of emotionally muted statements. I do think you were wrong to remove my comment given what the guidelines state.

dang 6y ago
You're asking me what is ideological about "tech companies that routinely perform highly immoral business practices", "Google does not give a fuck about black people", and "But I'm sure now that people are capitalizing "Black" that things will change"? The entire comment seems to consist of high-indignation, low-information name-calling on the ideological themes of corporatism and race. No one's saying you have to be emotionally muted! (I probably have to be, but it doesn't mean anyone else does.) There's no problem with vibrant emotion—the problem is with the sort of repetition that makes up with intensity for what it lacks in new information. It seems to be a kind of mechanism—the mind turns to indignation in the absence of anything more substantial: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=mind%20amuse%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor... When you say "My comment was entirely based on my experience with how companies treat people."—it's precisely that which your comment lacked. I believe you that it was based on your experience, but it didn't actually share any of that experience; it just angrily repeated some stale tropes. Such a comment is activating rather than interesting, which is why it evokes worse discussion from others. If you had actually shared your relevant experience the comment would probably have been more interesting than activating, and that is what evokes better discussion from others. (I didn't remove your comment, but I did auto-collapse this low-quality flamewar subthread. That is one trick we use to try to jiggle the system out of its failure modes.)
- Karsteski 6y ago
  Cool, I'll be more detailed next time. Sorry for the trouble. You could really do more yourself not to hide/remove comments with equally inflammatory responses. It's quite irritating to have something done like that by someone who is essentially the shot-caller on a site like this on an issue which boils down to opinion. The highbrow condescension isn't necessary either... Anyways, perhaps it's moderation like this that's necessary to keep the forum quality. I do wish it were approached in a different manner however. Even just asking for more clarification or elaboration would have been a better move in this situation. Anyways, thanks for moderating I guess. I understand that it's a thankless job.
  - dang 6y ago
    Thanks for the thoughtful reply! I'm open to learning how to be less irritating or condescending—it would make life easier, and I'm sure it's possible. Calling the shots doesn't just boil down to opinion–there are principles here. They don't determine everything precisely—different people would make different calls. But the principles aren't infinitely flexible, either, and we have a lot of practice in applying them.

dang 6y ago

You're asking me what is ideological about "tech companies that routinely perform highly immoral business practices", "Google does not give a fuck about black people", and "But I'm sure now that people are capitalizing "Black" that things will change"? The entire comment seems to consist of high-indignation, low-information name-calling on the ideological themes of corporatism and race. No one's saying you have to be emotionally muted! (I probably have to be, but it doesn't mean anyone else does.) There's no problem with vibrant emotion—the problem is with the sort of repetition that makes up with intensity for what it lacks in new information. It seems to be a kind of mechanism—the mind turns to indignation in the absence of anything more substantial: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=mind%20amuse%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor... When you say "My comment was entirely based on my experience with how companies treat people."—it's precisely that which your comment lacked. I believe you that it was based on your experience, but it didn't actually share any of that experience; it just angrily repeated some stale tropes. Such a comment is activating rather than interesting, which is why it evokes worse discussion from others. If you had actually shared your relevant experience the comment would probably have been more interesting than activating, and that is what evokes better discussion from others. (I didn't remove your comment, but I did auto-collapse this low-quality flamewar subthread. That is one trick we use to try to jiggle the system out of its failure modes.)

Karsteski 6y ago
Cool, I'll be more detailed next time. Sorry for the trouble. You could really do more yourself not to hide/remove comments with equally inflammatory responses. It's quite irritating to have something done like that by someone who is essentially the shot-caller on a site like this on an issue which boils down to opinion. The highbrow condescension isn't necessary either... Anyways, perhaps it's moderation like this that's necessary to keep the forum quality. I do wish it were approached in a different manner however. Even just asking for more clarification or elaboration would have been a better move in this situation. Anyways, thanks for moderating I guess. I understand that it's a thankless job.
- dang 6y ago
  Thanks for the thoughtful reply! I'm open to learning how to be less irritating or condescending—it would make life easier, and I'm sure it's possible. Calling the shots doesn't just boil down to opinion–there are principles here. They don't determine everything precisely—different people would make different calls. But the principles aren't infinitely flexible, either, and we have a lot of practice in applying them.