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I want to comment on one more thing: calling somebody a "troll" is an insult. Over several years, I have been called troll many times, just because I called ou

I want to comment on one more thing: calling somebody a "troll" is an insult. Over several years, I have been called troll many times, just because I called out leftist conspiracy theories or misguided conceptions about economics. I think I have only called somebody an "idiot" once, and even that was quantified with "if you believe x, you are an idiot". I always try to explain patiently what is going on. I don't recall you ever banning somebody for calling other people a "troll". I guess it is just such a normal reaction for lefties these days, anybody who disagrees with them has to be a troll. You have banned me several times for criticising socialism, though. You yourself are calling people "trolls", so I guess you won't change your policies. And it is fine - pg handed the site over to you, so you can form it to your liking. Just don't pretend you are doing it for some higher values. You just don't like criticism of leftist ideology, that is all there is to it. As long as you don't ban people for spouting insults, spare me your "guidelines". Bye

dang 5y ago
Actually I was careful not to call you a troll. I said your username was trollish (meaning that it contains a provocation that exerts a provocative effect in every thread it posts to), and I said your repetitively bringing up the Holocaust was at minimum concern trolling (I could also have said sealioning)—the point being that going on and on about how you're not questioning the Holocaust is weird, like insisting you're not a cop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBE9TZP26FI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBE9TZP26FI. It's guaranteed to have provocative effects (hence concern trolling), and it inevitably brings up darker associations, because extremists are known to play games with this sort of thing—non-denial denials, etc. We don't want any of that here. > You have banned me several times for criticising socialism > You just don't like criticism of leftist ideology People make up this narrative about why we ban them all the time; ideologues on the opposite side say the same thing. None of it is true. You can tell that in two ways: first, the claims are completely contradictory (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26148870 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26148870), but they rely on the same logic, so the logic must be wrong; second, all you have to do is scroll through past moderation comments to see that we moderate people on all ideological sides—and get flamed for it from all sides, too. Since we've had to ban you several times, it's probably time for you to realize that you're simply not using this site as intended.
- notanzaiiswear 5y ago
  Whether you call me a troll or claim I am trolling amount to the same thing. It sounds as if you want to ban me because you don't like my user name. Seriously? If it makes you feel better, maybe just change my user name? I pointed out that I am not questioning the holocaust because I was speaking out in defence of somebody questioning the holocaust, and in my experience, people have extreme difficulties to distinguish between those two things. Most people assume that if I defend somebody who denies the holocaust, I must also be denying the holocaust (same for other subjects, but the holocaust is of course especially loaded). You yourself demonstrated the issue, because you also seem to think I deny the holocaust now (accusing me of "concern trolling" which implies I only fake denying the holocaust, and I really deny the holocaust). Try harder (sorry to be so blunt). So I am sorry, but in my view, your estimation of what I am doing here is completely off base. I plainly don't understand why you ban me. You may claim that you ban people of all sides, but my experience is that I tend to get banned when I chime in on political threads to criticise flawed socialist ideology. You then ban me citing "no politics" as a reason, but you don't censor the leftist threads themselves. So what am I supposed to think. My comments are generally civil, unless people start calling me names. So the only explanation is that you don't like my politics. Maybe you also don't like some leftist politics so you ban them, or those leftists do other things that make you ban them. The bottom line for me is that the only reason I see why you ban me is that you don't like my politics. If it was just about politics in general, you would ban the people starting the threads. "Since we've had to ban you several times, it's probably time for you to realize that you're simply not using this site as intended." It is clear to me and has been a while that you and I don't get along or you simply don't understand me. To me it is still the site that PG started (I have been here since it was Startup News). He handed the reigns over to you, sure. I am not 100% that it is your site now, though. Nevertheless I would be very happy to leave forever as soon as I find a better alternative, actually. Seriously. You think I enjoy this banning nonsense and the leftist ideology? As I said before, I wish you would actually get rid of the politics so that the site becomes usable again. (Even without your bans, I wish there was a site for news and stuff that is not filled with leftist ideology all the time - or any other ideology, really.). I also don't want to accuse you of anything, I know moderating is a difficult job. And by and large, there still seems to be interesting content on HN and interesting people are posting stuff (I think there was even a NYT article praising you. A commie outlet, but still - congratulations). I just don't really understand why you ban me, sorry.

dang 5y ago

Actually I was careful not to call you a troll. I said your username was trollish (meaning that it contains a provocation that exerts a provocative effect in every thread it posts to), and I said your repetitively bringing up the Holocaust was at minimum concern trolling (I could also have said sealioning)—the point being that going on and on about how you're not questioning the Holocaust is weird, like insisting you're not a cop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBE9TZP26FI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBE9TZP26FI. It's guaranteed to have provocative effects (hence concern trolling), and it inevitably brings up darker associations, because extremists are known to play games with this sort of thing—non-denial denials, etc. We don't want any of that here. > You have banned me several times for criticising socialism > You just don't like criticism of leftist ideology People make up this narrative about why we ban them all the time; ideologues on the opposite side say the same thing. None of it is true. You can tell that in two ways: first, the claims are completely contradictory (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26148870 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26148870), but they rely on the same logic, so the logic must be wrong; second, all you have to do is scroll through past moderation comments to see that we moderate people on all ideological sides—and get flamed for it from all sides, too. Since we've had to ban you several times, it's probably time for you to realize that you're simply not using this site as intended.

notanzaiiswear 5y ago
Whether you call me a troll or claim I am trolling amount to the same thing. It sounds as if you want to ban me because you don't like my user name. Seriously? If it makes you feel better, maybe just change my user name? I pointed out that I am not questioning the holocaust because I was speaking out in defence of somebody questioning the holocaust, and in my experience, people have extreme difficulties to distinguish between those two things. Most people assume that if I defend somebody who denies the holocaust, I must also be denying the holocaust (same for other subjects, but the holocaust is of course especially loaded). You yourself demonstrated the issue, because you also seem to think I deny the holocaust now (accusing me of "concern trolling" which implies I only fake denying the holocaust, and I really deny the holocaust). Try harder (sorry to be so blunt). So I am sorry, but in my view, your estimation of what I am doing here is completely off base. I plainly don't understand why you ban me. You may claim that you ban people of all sides, but my experience is that I tend to get banned when I chime in on political threads to criticise flawed socialist ideology. You then ban me citing "no politics" as a reason, but you don't censor the leftist threads themselves. So what am I supposed to think. My comments are generally civil, unless people start calling me names. So the only explanation is that you don't like my politics. Maybe you also don't like some leftist politics so you ban them, or those leftists do other things that make you ban them. The bottom line for me is that the only reason I see why you ban me is that you don't like my politics. If it was just about politics in general, you would ban the people starting the threads. "Since we've had to ban you several times, it's probably time for you to realize that you're simply not using this site as intended." It is clear to me and has been a while that you and I don't get along or you simply don't understand me. To me it is still the site that PG started (I have been here since it was Startup News). He handed the reigns over to you, sure. I am not 100% that it is your site now, though. Nevertheless I would be very happy to leave forever as soon as I find a better alternative, actually. Seriously. You think I enjoy this banning nonsense and the leftist ideology? As I said before, I wish you would actually get rid of the politics so that the site becomes usable again. (Even without your bans, I wish there was a site for news and stuff that is not filled with leftist ideology all the time - or any other ideology, really.). I also don't want to accuse you of anything, I know moderating is a difficult job. And by and large, there still seems to be interesting content on HN and interesting people are posting stuff (I think there was even a NYT article praising you. A commie outlet, but still - congratulations). I just don't really understand why you ban me, sorry.