4 ms·

How/why was he chased away? I assume this is the essay you're talking about? https://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2023/01/08/ai-will-kill-literature-and-ai-wil

• fdg313 4y ago
  That’s the one. No one knows for sure why he was banned but the most credible theory is that: (1) he knew too much about YC’s lack of support for Aaron Swartz (who was a Reddit cofounder, thus YC alum) and his reputation when the man was in federal crosshairs, and discrediting MOC was a preemptive strike of sorts. (2) he pointed out the existence of algorithmic manipulations (slowban, rankban) before anyone knew those were a thing. (3) he wrote some blog post in 2012 you can’t even find but that one of the YC partners thought was personally about him. I can’t verify this because I think the post was deleted years ago. It could be all or any of those in some combination.
  • onion2k 4y ago
    It could be all or any of those in some combination. Or none of them.
  • simula67 4y ago
    For those interested, here is the comment that got him banned: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10017538 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10017538
    • zeptumnos 4y ago
      [flagged]
      • AnimalMuppet 4y ago
        > Back in 2015, YC was actually bribing and extorting people into pumping this false narrative in an attempt to drum up a cancel lynch mob against MOC Evidence? I sure don't remember them doing any such thing, and I was around here in 2015.
        • vnoops 4y ago
          It was as much in Twitter and Reddit as it was here, but there was this disingenuous campaign not only to misrepresent the true cause of the ban but to mischaracterize “queynte” as some kind of gender slur. The goal was to stir up a lynch mob and get him fired or even killed, but it turned out MOC wasn’t polarising enough or even that relevant, so it never went anywhere.
          • tptacek 4y ago
            Do you get how sad this looks for you?
        • dang 4y ago
          It's singular bullshit—there's only one person repeating it.
      • deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
• beambot 4y ago
  Directly preceding his ban: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10017538 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10017538
  • zeptumnos 4y ago
    No one believes the stated reason for the ban is the real one. By that line of logic, there’s no need for courts. You can just ask the suspect if he committed the crime. If he says he didn’t do it, we’ll now you have your answer and you can let him go.
    • beambot 4y ago
      I believe the dang's stated reason: repeated bad behavior despite warninngs.
      • vnoops 4y ago
        [flagged]
• jcrites 4y ago
  I know we're getting OT, but I was curious and so looked up this thread, which includes a comment from dang regarding the reasons for the original ban (alleged repeated violation of civility guidelines): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10017538 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10017538
  • zeptumnos 4y ago
    [flagged]
    • Kbelicius 4y ago
      > No one thinks the stated reason for the ban was the real one, though. Was there a poll? Where can I see it? > That comment was mild by HN standards, especially in 2015 He wasn't banned just for that comment ffs. Bellow it you can see Dang explaining why he was banned.
      • vnoops 4y ago
        And clearly we can take Dan G at face value. It’s not like he has a continent sized conflict of interest or anything.
    • AnimalMuppet 4y ago
      No one thinks that? Really? No, you don't think that. But, frankly, I trust dang to tell the truth about his reasons. I trust him much more than I trust some random green account's judgment of dang's reasons.
• drekipus 4y ago
  queynte is such a great word, I'm gonna have to use it more often.