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It’s not flamewar. If we can’t reply to trolls, you are protecting trolls. For "free speech" I guess? If this site is now a portal for Russian trolls, then ple

It’s not flamewar. If we can’t reply to trolls, you are protecting trolls. For "free speech" I guess? If this site is now a portal for Russian trolls, then please, ban me. We’ll see what HN stand for.

dang 4y ago
This is about comment quality. The comment you posted was low quality, information-free flamebait. That's not what this site is for, so please don't post like that. Assuming you have a substantive position about an interesting topic, it ought to be possible to comment thoughtfully. If not, the thing to do is not post. Btw, please stop posting political/ideological/nationalistic battle comments to HN. I saw quite a few of those in your recent feed, and that's also not what HN is for. It's for intellectual curiosity, which is something else entirely. This has nothing to do with what your views are or who you're for or against. We don't care and we don't track that. The idea that the mods must secretly be in cahoots with the enemy is pretty much what everyone with strong feelings feels when they get a moderation scolding, but it's an illusion. We're just trying to have a specific kind of internet forum and hopefully prevent it from destroying itself.
- qsdf38100 4y ago
  I’m not the one posting an article full of borderline political propaganda. Don’t you see you’re blaming the wrong person here? At what point does staying "neutral" is just cowardice or playing both sides? What does it take for you to take a stance? We’re being flooded with disinformation, and you punish the ones denouncing it. I’m tired with this cold and fake neutrality. Being neutral wrt an aggression is helping the aggressor. Democracy and western values are under attack, you are only helping the aggressors. Now is the time to fight back, in the information space, too. Inb4 the paranoia accusations…
  - dang 4y ago
    It isn't complicated. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33208006 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33208006 was garden-variety flamebait/snark, and therefore against the site guidelines. This isn't a borderline call! It has nothing to do your views on world affairs and nothing to do with what anybody else did or didn't do (it always feels like the other person started it and did worse). It's just about having an internet forum that doesn't suck. Please don't post like that again.
    - qsdf38100 4y ago
      I acknowledge that my answer wasn’t constructive. BUT. It sucks even more when a forum becomes a place where voluntarily misleading articles make it to the 1st place. I’m loosing interest in HN, because it’s easy to be mislead and no actions are taken against the spread of misinformation. You don’t moderate the content, just the tone of the comments. It means I could spread disinformation here as long as I fake an intellectual take and a neutral tone. I beg you, don’t be a portal for dishonest articles and accounts pretending to be impartial but are just always aligned with the Kremlin interests. It’s not paranoia, we have to acknowledge it exists, and great efforts are being made to push it down our throats, more than ever, while little efforts are being made to fight it. Let us at least answer and make it clear we’re not that easily fooled, and that we’re not obligated to take the bait of a false debate with bad faith arguments and flat out lies.
      - dang 4y ago
        People disagree vigorously and completely about what counts as true or false. That's how divisive topics work. The more strongly people disagree, the more easily they convince themselves that the others are arguing in bad faith. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't (in my experience, internet users vastly overestimate it), but either way the only thing that can possibly work in the long run is to counter bad information with good information, bad arguments with good arguments, false claims with true claims. Users are responsible for doing that. Moderators are responsible for making sure they do it within the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. Breaking the site guidelines doesn't help counter falsehood—in fact it just discredits the commenter who's doing it, which means discrediting the truth in the case they happen to be right (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=truth%20discredit%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...). So there's no conflict here. If your concern is helping the truth, it's in your interest to follow the rules.

dang 4y ago

This is about comment quality. The comment you posted was low quality, information-free flamebait. That's not what this site is for, so please don't post like that. Assuming you have a substantive position about an interesting topic, it ought to be possible to comment thoughtfully. If not, the thing to do is not post. Btw, please stop posting political/ideological/nationalistic battle comments to HN. I saw quite a few of those in your recent feed, and that's also not what HN is for. It's for intellectual curiosity, which is something else entirely. This has nothing to do with what your views are or who you're for or against. We don't care and we don't track that. The idea that the mods must secretly be in cahoots with the enemy is pretty much what everyone with strong feelings feels when they get a moderation scolding, but it's an illusion. We're just trying to have a specific kind of internet forum and hopefully prevent it from destroying itself.

qsdf38100 4y ago
I’m not the one posting an article full of borderline political propaganda. Don’t you see you’re blaming the wrong person here? At what point does staying "neutral" is just cowardice or playing both sides? What does it take for you to take a stance? We’re being flooded with disinformation, and you punish the ones denouncing it. I’m tired with this cold and fake neutrality. Being neutral wrt an aggression is helping the aggressor. Democracy and western values are under attack, you are only helping the aggressors. Now is the time to fight back, in the information space, too. Inb4 the paranoia accusations…
- dang 4y ago
  It isn't complicated. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33208006 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33208006 was garden-variety flamebait/snark, and therefore against the site guidelines. This isn't a borderline call! It has nothing to do your views on world affairs and nothing to do with what anybody else did or didn't do (it always feels like the other person started it and did worse). It's just about having an internet forum that doesn't suck. Please don't post like that again.
  - qsdf38100 4y ago
    I acknowledge that my answer wasn’t constructive. BUT. It sucks even more when a forum becomes a place where voluntarily misleading articles make it to the 1st place. I’m loosing interest in HN, because it’s easy to be mislead and no actions are taken against the spread of misinformation. You don’t moderate the content, just the tone of the comments. It means I could spread disinformation here as long as I fake an intellectual take and a neutral tone. I beg you, don’t be a portal for dishonest articles and accounts pretending to be impartial but are just always aligned with the Kremlin interests. It’s not paranoia, we have to acknowledge it exists, and great efforts are being made to push it down our throats, more than ever, while little efforts are being made to fight it. Let us at least answer and make it clear we’re not that easily fooled, and that we’re not obligated to take the bait of a false debate with bad faith arguments and flat out lies.
    - dang 4y ago
      People disagree vigorously and completely about what counts as true or false. That's how divisive topics work. The more strongly people disagree, the more easily they convince themselves that the others are arguing in bad faith. Maybe they are, maybe they aren't (in my experience, internet users vastly overestimate it), but either way the only thing that can possibly work in the long run is to counter bad information with good information, bad arguments with good arguments, false claims with true claims. Users are responsible for doing that. Moderators are responsible for making sure they do it within the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. Breaking the site guidelines doesn't help counter falsehood—in fact it just discredits the commenter who's doing it, which means discrediting the truth in the case they happen to be right (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=truth%20discredit%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...). So there's no conflict here. If your concern is helping the truth, it's in your interest to follow the rules.