4 ms·

Hacker News is politically biased

9 points by alexnewman 4y ago

Has anyone else noticed posting of any views not extremely progressive on hackernews now leads to downvotes?

ddon 4y ago
every platform is biased, you want it or not...
alexnewman 4y ago
It’s amusing all the flagging going on here. what’s the process for inspecting the flagging?
slater 4y ago
- dang 4y ago
  Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News? You've been doing it a lot lately, unfortunately, and we're trying for a different quality of discussion here. We especially need long-standing members of the community to contribute to improving it, not destroying it. Fortunately you've posted tons of good comments over the years, so this shouldn't be hard to fix. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
dtagames 4y ago
I don't think it's as blanket as that. But there are certain types of comments and particular opinions that set off the collective HN ire. Anyone who has been active a while is likely to incur it at some point. I'd say just try to keep your comments constructive as opposed to merely critical, thus giving a voice to your opinions even when they weigh against the masses. HN is full of very smart people and these type of effects are common in high intelligence social groups.
- alexnewman 4y ago
  What type of effects are common in HI social groups?
potamic 4y ago
What do you mean by progressive views? Do you have any examples where you've seen such downvoting?
- alexnewman 4y ago
lkjl4tl 4y ago
[flagged]
- alexnewman 4y ago
  I remember when SF politics was so unique it couldn’t be described as right or left. I left when it felt uniform.
Shadonototra 4y ago
It is, it always been, and it's getting worse, they will flag you for calling them out, here is the message they kept flagging on the pro american cloud act post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32093891 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32093891 -- This is a website using the .eu domain to spread an american propaganda (anti EU act, Pro American cloud act), led by Mozilla and an agency from UK using a 3rd party entity to be able to register said domain in EU, everything hosted in US servers btw Shady-land: https://whois.eurid.eu/en/search/?domain=securityriskahead.eu https://whois.eurid.eu/en/search/?domain=securityriskahead.e... Be careful with what you read online people! I recommend you check the original articles instead of this foreign propagandized website in order to forge your own opinion on the matter
- dang 4y ago
  No moderators flagged or even saw your posts. Users were flagging them. I've seen them now, though, and what you did in that thread was egregiously abusive. Moreover, you've been using HN primarily for political/nationalistic battle. We ban such accounts, for obvious reasons (they destroy what this site is supposed to be for) and I've therefore banned your account. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. (This has nothing to do with disagreeing with your politics. I don't know what they are.)
  - __B_B__ 4y ago
    Well, here's your answer OP.
dang 4y ago
Left people think it's right biased and right people think it's left biased. There are more than enough data points for everyone to find lots to dislike: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20dislike%20notice&sort=byDate&type=story&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que.... We're all more likely to notice 'negative' examples, and what counts as 'negative'? Simply what you yourself disagree with. In other words, these perceptions are in the eye of the beholder. What you're perceiving is not the site/community as a whole, but an inverted reflection of your own preferences. People with opposite views notice opposite things and arrive at opposite conclusions: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=%22false%20feelings%20of%20generality%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que.... Just to mention a few examples, here are people who have opposite preferences to yours and therefore have opposite perceptions of HN, often quite intensely: hn leans extremely conservative https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31951761 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31951761 many comments on HN of late have tilted radical right-wing https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31570945 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31570945 I feel pretty confident about the right/libertarian bias to HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31562828 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31562828 intolerable shithole full of pretend libertarians (e.g. racist white power sorts) [...] countering that will summon dang, who *always* hands out the bans to one side (https://web.archive.org/web/20220717202958/https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=bfgoodrich https://web.archive.org/web/20220717202958/https://news.ycom...) it's capital that aligns to fascism https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32002395 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32002395 pretty heavily Libertarian https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32070125 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32070125 filled with self obsessed tech bros who pretend they are "libertarian" but are actually just racists https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31701287 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31701287 always been very right wing ... always filled with racist, sexist, right wing political abuse https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30352287 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30352287 Plenty more at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26148870 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26148870, with links to others.
- alexnewman 4y ago
  You assumed my political views. I’m a lgbtq+ , communist who has donated all of the money over ever made to fight climate change. However it’s clear to me that views which are not extremely progressive get downvoted. Good for joy upvotes however
the_only_law 4y ago
No, but you can see the critical thinking ability of HN on full display right here.
- dang 4y ago
  "Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community." It's reliably a marker of bad comments and worse threads. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
wizofaus 4y ago
I don't recall even seeing any recent posts that might reasonably classify as "extremely progressive". Perhaps largely due to the US- centric nature of the posters here, and the fact HN doesn't "tailor" content based on user behavior/preferences, I definitely see far more strongly conservative views posted than I do in other online forums, which, even though I rarely sympathize with them, is good to at least get some exposure to.
daviddever23box 4y ago
"Your lack of well-developed critical thinking is not my problem, until it results in the imposition of your belief system onto my own daily life."
im3w1l 4y ago
I was searching through dang's comments to find some semi-relevant thread in which to make to make the following point and I guess this one is actually super related. What I have noticed recently is not exactly a left-right bias, but rather a narrowing of allowed opinions on pretty much anything. I have found that for my posts people jump on the downvote button pretty much unpredictably. It's not even my worst-thought or my rudest comments, it can happen to anything. In fact, some comments that I find myself cringing at in hindsight manage to catch a few upvotes. So I think maybe the underlying issue is stupider and stupider people managing to find their ways to the voting buttons. Interestingly, in the past I have noticed and pointed out a declining comment quality, but either I've gotten more tolerant of it, or it has reversed, because it no longer bothers me. Successful mod intervention may indeed be behind it. This time anyway, I do think voting is trending problematic.

9 points by alexnewman 4y ago

Has anyone else noticed posting of any views not extremely progressive on hackernews now leads to downvotes?

ddon 4y ago

every platform is biased, you want it or not...

alexnewman 4y ago

It’s amusing all the flagging going on here. what’s the process for inspecting the flagging?

slater 4y ago

dang 4y ago
Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments to Hacker News? You've been doing it a lot lately, unfortunately, and we're trying for a different quality of discussion here. We especially need long-standing members of the community to contribute to improving it, not destroying it. Fortunately you've posted tons of good comments over the years, so this shouldn't be hard to fix. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

dtagames 4y ago

I don't think it's as blanket as that. But there are certain types of comments and particular opinions that set off the collective HN ire. Anyone who has been active a while is likely to incur it at some point. I'd say just try to keep your comments constructive as opposed to merely critical, thus giving a voice to your opinions even when they weigh against the masses. HN is full of very smart people and these type of effects are common in high intelligence social groups.

alexnewman 4y ago
What type of effects are common in HI social groups?

potamic 4y ago

What do you mean by progressive views? Do you have any examples where you've seen such downvoting?

alexnewman 4y ago

lkjl4tl 4y ago

[flagged]

alexnewman 4y ago
I remember when SF politics was so unique it couldn’t be described as right or left. I left when it felt uniform.

Shadonototra 4y ago

It is, it always been, and it's getting worse, they will flag you for calling them out, here is the message they kept flagging on the pro american cloud act post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32093891 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32093891 -- This is a website using the .eu domain to spread an american propaganda (anti EU act, Pro American cloud act), led by Mozilla and an agency from UK using a 3rd party entity to be able to register said domain in EU, everything hosted in US servers btw Shady-land: https://whois.eurid.eu/en/search/?domain=securityriskahead.eu https://whois.eurid.eu/en/search/?domain=securityriskahead.e... Be careful with what you read online people! I recommend you check the original articles instead of this foreign propagandized website in order to forge your own opinion on the matter

dang 4y ago
No moderators flagged or even saw your posts. Users were flagging them. I've seen them now, though, and what you did in that thread was egregiously abusive. Moreover, you've been using HN primarily for political/nationalistic battle. We ban such accounts, for obvious reasons (they destroy what this site is supposed to be for) and I've therefore banned your account. If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. (This has nothing to do with disagreeing with your politics. I don't know what they are.)
- __B_B__ 4y ago
  Well, here's your answer OP.

dang 4y ago

Left people think it's right biased and right people think it's left biased. There are more than enough data points for everyone to find lots to dislike: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20dislike%20notice&sort=byDate&type=story&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que.... We're all more likely to notice 'negative' examples, and what counts as 'negative'? Simply what you yourself disagree with. In other words, these perceptions are in the eye of the beholder. What you're perceiving is not the site/community as a whole, but an inverted reflection of your own preferences. People with opposite views notice opposite things and arrive at opposite conclusions: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=%22false%20feelings%20of%20generality%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que.... Just to mention a few examples, here are people who have opposite preferences to yours and therefore have opposite perceptions of HN, often quite intensely: hn leans extremely conservative https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31951761 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31951761 many comments on HN of late have tilted radical right-wing https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31570945 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31570945 I feel pretty confident about the right/libertarian bias to HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31562828 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31562828 intolerable shithole full of pretend libertarians (e.g. racist white power sorts) [...] countering that will summon dang, who *always* hands out the bans to one side (https://web.archive.org/web/20220717202958/https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=bfgoodrich https://web.archive.org/web/20220717202958/https://news.ycom...) it's capital that aligns to fascism https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32002395 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32002395 pretty heavily Libertarian https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32070125 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32070125 filled with self obsessed tech bros who pretend they are "libertarian" but are actually just racists https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31701287 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31701287 always been very right wing ... always filled with racist, sexist, right wing political abuse https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30352287 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30352287 Plenty more at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26148870 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26148870, with links to others.

alexnewman 4y ago
You assumed my political views. I’m a lgbtq+ , communist who has donated all of the money over ever made to fight climate change. However it’s clear to me that views which are not extremely progressive get downvoted. Good for joy upvotes however

the_only_law 4y ago

No, but you can see the critical thinking ability of HN on full display right here.

dang 4y ago
"Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community." It's reliably a marker of bad comments and worse threads. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

wizofaus 4y ago

I don't recall even seeing any recent posts that might reasonably classify as "extremely progressive". Perhaps largely due to the US- centric nature of the posters here, and the fact HN doesn't "tailor" content based on user behavior/preferences, I definitely see far more strongly conservative views posted than I do in other online forums, which, even though I rarely sympathize with them, is good to at least get some exposure to.

daviddever23box 4y ago

"Your lack of well-developed critical thinking is not my problem, until it results in the imposition of your belief system onto my own daily life."

im3w1l 4y ago

I was searching through dang's comments to find some semi-relevant thread in which to make to make the following point and I guess this one is actually super related. What I have noticed recently is not exactly a left-right bias, but rather a narrowing of allowed opinions on pretty much anything. I have found that for my posts people jump on the downvote button pretty much unpredictably. It's not even my worst-thought or my rudest comments, it can happen to anything. In fact, some comments that I find myself cringing at in hindsight manage to catch a few upvotes. So I think maybe the underlying issue is stupider and stupider people managing to find their ways to the voting buttons. Interestingly, in the past I have noticed and pointed out a declining comment quality, but either I've gotten more tolerant of it, or it has reversed, because it no longer bothers me. Successful mod intervention may indeed be behind it. This time anyway, I do think voting is trending problematic.