3 ms·

HN is heavily moderated, which is interesting given how often it is used as a platform to decry censorship.

boringg 5y ago
Can you provide specific examples please? It would seem that it moderates trolling content, self promotional or bot level garbage.
- ssully 5y ago
  Not the OP, but your examples of bot level garbage and trolling content are perfect for Twitter. I would include self promotion, but that is such a core part of social media.
- Apocryphon 5y ago
  That in itself makes it more heavily moderated than Facebook or Twitter, though of course that’s also attributable to manageable scale.
- re 5y ago
  https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=flame%20by%3Adang&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... You can also try searching for "please by:dang"
  - boringg 5y ago
    Great examples - social media platforms could do well and follow dang's example.
vlunkr 5y ago
I don't think that's a contradiction personally. Most reasonable people accept that some level of censorship is necessary for a good discussion, especially when hundreds or thousands of people are involved. HN style moderation doesn't exactly scale to twitter size easily though.
- cauthon 5y ago
  I think OP is pointing out the irony that HN is popular among people who claim to not accept that.
  - 22c 5y ago
    People try to make the argument that Twitter and (maybe to a lesser extent) Facebook are akin to a "town square", whereas I don't think people consider the HN comments section a "town square".
    - AmericanChopper 5y ago
      HN as a platform is effectively dedicated to a narrow set of topics, with a largely homogeneous user base (compared to any mainstream social media at least). I don’t think the consensus here is particularly favourable towards free speech, and it certainly has a very narrow Overton Window of acceptable ideas. The user moderation features also heavily reinforce whatever groupthink is popular, you have to “accepted” by accumulating a large amount of karma to influence voting, and 4 in-group users disagreeing with a comment is enough to remove it from the discussion. I think Dang’s moderation is usually pretty decent, but I really don’t think this is a place where free speech is championed. In any thread on the topic, calls for increased speech regulation seem to be very popular.
      - 22c 5y ago
        I've been lurking on HN for about the last 8 years or so but only a few years ago made an account and I sparsely comment. Only a couple of weeks ago was my account considered worthy of being able to vote down. Meanwhile I've seen users essentially "game" their comment karma to high amounts within a few weeks. I don't really agree with the idea that this place is an echo chamber, but I do sort of see it as similar to an IT meetup. You generally don't go to an IT focused meetup and start talking about abortion, religion, etc. and nobody would be surprised if you were kindly asked to leave the venue if you insisted on soap-boxing. If someone came and carted you off in a black van for speaking in a public place about your feelings on abortion I'd expect there to be a lot of push back from the public.

Can you provide specific examples please? It would seem that it moderates trolling content, self promotional or bot level garbage.

ssully 5y ago
Not the OP, but your examples of bot level garbage and trolling content are perfect for Twitter. I would include self promotion, but that is such a core part of social media.
Apocryphon 5y ago
That in itself makes it more heavily moderated than Facebook or Twitter, though of course that’s also attributable to manageable scale.
re 5y ago
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=flame%20by%3Adang&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... You can also try searching for "please by:dang"
- boringg 5y ago
  Great examples - social media platforms could do well and follow dang's example.

vlunkr 5y ago

I don't think that's a contradiction personally. Most reasonable people accept that some level of censorship is necessary for a good discussion, especially when hundreds or thousands of people are involved. HN style moderation doesn't exactly scale to twitter size easily though.

cauthon 5y ago
I think OP is pointing out the irony that HN is popular among people who claim to not accept that.
- 22c 5y ago
  People try to make the argument that Twitter and (maybe to a lesser extent) Facebook are akin to a "town square", whereas I don't think people consider the HN comments section a "town square".
  - AmericanChopper 5y ago
    HN as a platform is effectively dedicated to a narrow set of topics, with a largely homogeneous user base (compared to any mainstream social media at least). I don’t think the consensus here is particularly favourable towards free speech, and it certainly has a very narrow Overton Window of acceptable ideas. The user moderation features also heavily reinforce whatever groupthink is popular, you have to “accepted” by accumulating a large amount of karma to influence voting, and 4 in-group users disagreeing with a comment is enough to remove it from the discussion. I think Dang’s moderation is usually pretty decent, but I really don’t think this is a place where free speech is championed. In any thread on the topic, calls for increased speech regulation seem to be very popular.
    - 22c 5y ago
      I've been lurking on HN for about the last 8 years or so but only a few years ago made an account and I sparsely comment. Only a couple of weeks ago was my account considered worthy of being able to vote down. Meanwhile I've seen users essentially "game" their comment karma to high amounts within a few weeks. I don't really agree with the idea that this place is an echo chamber, but I do sort of see it as similar to an IT meetup. You generally don't go to an IT focused meetup and start talking about abortion, religion, etc. and nobody would be surprised if you were kindly asked to leave the venue if you insisted on soap-boxing. If someone came and carted you off in a black van for speaking in a public place about your feelings on abortion I'd expect there to be a lot of push back from the public.