4 ms·
Ask HN: Does HN need a process for bringing in emergency moderators?
In light of the recent military police national-breach action in the Ukraine and the consequenting adjustment in HN moderation posture, has any need for emergency moderators risen?
If so, or if better not to answer, is there a need for a better process and tooling for bringing in emergency moderators?
In any case, does anyone else think that there should be some sort of button for an emergency “gray vote”?
- slater 5y ago"adjustment in HN moderation posture" What was the adjustment?
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y agoI’d have to go back and dig to find the relevant posts, but essentially there is the expectation that Hacker News will self-moderate with a careful eye during situations of elevated threat. So, as soon as the military police action in the Ukraine started, you may have noticed a change in the tone of the posts and comments? If not, keep an eye out, in the long run, for rates of change in things like frequency of abusive commentary, frequency of down voting, more “graying out” than normal, If so, that is due to the background pattern of self-moderation that takes place at Hacker News. Edit: worth digging through https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html every now and again, too.
- WaxedChewbacca 5y ago
- bell-cot 5y agoMy guess is that you want [more|less|different] coverage here of the war in Ukraine. (Like slater, I've heard nothing about any "adjustment in HN moderation posture".) Rather than hint and insinuate and beat around the bush, maybe you should just say exactly what you want, and how much you're willing to pay Paul Graham & Co. - beyond your current HN [Monthly|Annual] Subscription price - to make it happen?
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y agoAh, well, it may be an improvement to allow certain user accounts to “gray out” a comment. If I had some free time, I’d be happy to pitch in on the codebase for free (or a minimum living wage lol).
- gus_massa 5y agoIf you see a comment that is extremely bad, you can send an email to the mods. They usually reply soon, but it's a manual process, so use it sparsely. (Most of the time just refreshing the page is enough, because other users may have downvoted and flagged the comment, so after a refresh it may be grey or [dead].)
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y agoInteresting, some flag like [dead|grey|safe|authoritative] might be an improvement on the situation.
- gus_massa 5y agoI downvote very seldom. Probably once per day. Moreover, I upvote grey comments I disagree, if they are not offensive or very wrong.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y agoI downvote regularly following the FAQ - if it isn’t an interesting comment or if it violates site guidelines, downvote. If it is interesting and/or informative I upvote. There is a slight gap in moderation capacity for “hot topic” comments that get an way more upvotes than they get downvotes, even though the comment actually violates site guidelines. The idea of the “grey vote” is to perhaps allow certain users to make a comment grey without necessarily flagging it. Lots of food for thought.
- wrycoder 5y agoIt appears to me that HN moderators are doing just fine.
- 9wzYQbTYsAIc 5y agoIndeed, just with COVID-19 and all, I was wondering.
- guilhas 5y agoIt almost needs a political tab, where all non technology relevant related posts should be moved to