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I've only been browsing here for about 10 of the 15 years, but I remember a time when the discussions closely matched what I and the public at large could discu

I've only been browsing here for about 10 of the 15 years, but I remember a time when the discussions closely matched what I and the public at large could discuss in private without fear. But there has been a chilling effect in recent years where more and more topics become verboten and someone will get downvoted, at a minimum, for even bringing them up. Interesting topics and child threads go missing on the regular. We're even at a point now where certain corporate press releases cannot even be questioned at all, despite the same corporations being stuck with heavy fines for similar past behavior they're being accused of now. I still like HN for the purely technical aspects, but I don't know anyone who still views it as a place where complex ideas that affect society can be discussed anymore.

ineptech 5y ago
"Verboten" is a strong word; to my mind that refers to things that can't be discussed because they would challenge the power structure, like how you can't talk about Tank Guy in Chinese social media. That's not HN. When you get downvoted for hot-button political stuff, that's like getting shushed for talking about football in church. It's not censored, but this isn't the place for it.
unethical_ban 5y ago
I've been thinking of building an HN clone for politics and society. The requirement to post would be an account of the same name on HN, validated through something like a code on your profile, and only for users above a certain karma threshold. It basically outsourced the work of making sure users are of decent tech savviness and good faith.
dang 5y ago
> certain corporate press releases cannot even be questioned at all That doesn't sound right! What is an example?