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The sentiment in your comment is frequently expressed on HN - censorship isn't good, we need to decentralise to escape censorship. Ironic that this sentiment i

The sentiment in your comment is frequently expressed on HN - censorship isn't good, we need to decentralise to escape censorship. Ironic that this sentiment is expressed on HN, a centrally controlled site with strict rules around what can and cannot be said. "But all those rules (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) are good". Well, I agree. These rules are good. They are enforced well. It does foster a decent community with interesting discussion. But let's not mistake a well run, controlled system for a laissez-faire one. HN without moderation would not be the same site, and I'd bet most of us wouldn't want to be a part of it. This particular comment is strange though - you rail against Instagram's no nudity policy, something that almost all people agree that the site is better off without. And yet, have you tried posting nudity on HN? Let us know if it stays up. HN's control over topics that can be discussed is so firm that even potentially interesting threads like the first one around the European Super League (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26854970 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26854970) were shut down.

cool_dude85 5y ago
>Ironic that this sentiment is expressed on HN, a centrally controlled site with strict rules around what can and cannot be said. There's a big difference between a general photo-sharing platform like IG and a small, somewhat topic-focused forum like this. It's like saying a recipe submission site is "censoring" nudity posts. I guess that's technically true in a sense, but it's also not really what the site's for.
- clucas 5y ago
  Who gets to decide what the site is really for? And if it's not the entity who makes the site, what sort of say does that entity have?
superdisk 5y ago
HN itself is an independent site, as opposed to something like a Facebook group. The strict rules are ones we all agree to by joining. So HN by nature falls in the category of "running stuff yourself" since it's not part of a giant centralized conglomerate like Google or FB.
- nindalf 5y ago
  > The strict rules are ones we all agree to by joining. Did you manage to create an FB account that isn't bound by the Community Standards (https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards/ https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards/)?
sneak 5y ago
> Ironic that this sentiment is expressed on HN, a centrally controlled site with strict rules around what can and cannot be said. I say this on my own website, on other sites, and here too - it's not an exclusive thing. This isn't the gotcha you seem to think it is. > you rail against Instagram's no nudity policy, something that almost all people agree that the site is better off without. Citation needed. This is your opinion, not fact. There are many thousands of fine art photographers who can't share the majority of their work on IG, and hobbyists who have lost their entire accounts and audience simply because Facebook's censors can't tell a male nipple from a female one. Many people into fetish clothing and jewelry design can't even post non-nude images showcasing their products. There isn't the wide consensus you imagine. > And yet, have you tried posting nudity on HN? Let us know if it stays up. HN's control over topics that can be discussed is so firm that even potentially interesting threads like... I actually wrote and operate a little hobby site that exists solely to detect and highlight stories upvoted by HN's readership and marked as off topic (and hidden) by HN's administrators: https://orangesite.sneak.cloud https://orangesite.sneak.cloud People should be able to decide for themselves what they see and read, including delegating that authority. HN, for example, has the "showdead" preference option for opting in to seeing comments marked dead by the mods. HN strikes a good balance, and lets people opt in or out of comment moderation. Facebook and Google do not.
- zzo38computer 5y ago
  > People should be able to decide for themselves what they see and read, including delegating that authority. HN, for example, has the "showdead" preference option for opting in to seeing comments marked dead by the mods. > HN strikes a good balance, and lets people opt in or out of comment moderation. While this is a good idea (and I use the showdead option myself), it is incomplete. To complete it might include such thing as: - Add another preference option to force everything to be displayed in chronological order. - If you have enough disk space to allow it, allow replies to dead and old messages, which are automatically also dead.
im3w1l 5y ago
Hacker News isn't big enough to be a problem. It's not big enough to steer the global conversation. Censoring something from HN doesn't mean that huge populations never hear about it.

cool_dude85 5y ago

>Ironic that this sentiment is expressed on HN, a centrally controlled site with strict rules around what can and cannot be said. There's a big difference between a general photo-sharing platform like IG and a small, somewhat topic-focused forum like this. It's like saying a recipe submission site is "censoring" nudity posts. I guess that's technically true in a sense, but it's also not really what the site's for.

clucas 5y ago
Who gets to decide what the site is really for? And if it's not the entity who makes the site, what sort of say does that entity have?

superdisk 5y ago

HN itself is an independent site, as opposed to something like a Facebook group. The strict rules are ones we all agree to by joining. So HN by nature falls in the category of "running stuff yourself" since it's not part of a giant centralized conglomerate like Google or FB.

nindalf 5y ago
> The strict rules are ones we all agree to by joining. Did you manage to create an FB account that isn't bound by the Community Standards (https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards/ https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards/)?

sneak 5y ago

> Ironic that this sentiment is expressed on HN, a centrally controlled site with strict rules around what can and cannot be said. I say this on my own website, on other sites, and here too - it's not an exclusive thing. This isn't the gotcha you seem to think it is. > you rail against Instagram's no nudity policy, something that almost all people agree that the site is better off without. Citation needed. This is your opinion, not fact. There are many thousands of fine art photographers who can't share the majority of their work on IG, and hobbyists who have lost their entire accounts and audience simply because Facebook's censors can't tell a male nipple from a female one. Many people into fetish clothing and jewelry design can't even post non-nude images showcasing their products. There isn't the wide consensus you imagine. > And yet, have you tried posting nudity on HN? Let us know if it stays up. HN's control over topics that can be discussed is so firm that even potentially interesting threads like... I actually wrote and operate a little hobby site that exists solely to detect and highlight stories upvoted by HN's readership and marked as off topic (and hidden) by HN's administrators: https://orangesite.sneak.cloud https://orangesite.sneak.cloud People should be able to decide for themselves what they see and read, including delegating that authority. HN, for example, has the "showdead" preference option for opting in to seeing comments marked dead by the mods. HN strikes a good balance, and lets people opt in or out of comment moderation. Facebook and Google do not.

zzo38computer 5y ago
> People should be able to decide for themselves what they see and read, including delegating that authority. HN, for example, has the "showdead" preference option for opting in to seeing comments marked dead by the mods. > HN strikes a good balance, and lets people opt in or out of comment moderation. While this is a good idea (and I use the showdead option myself), it is incomplete. To complete it might include such thing as: - Add another preference option to force everything to be displayed in chronological order. - If you have enough disk space to allow it, allow replies to dead and old messages, which are automatically also dead.

im3w1l 5y ago

Hacker News isn't big enough to be a problem. It's not big enough to steer the global conversation. Censoring something from HN doesn't mean that huge populations never hear about it.