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dang, just so I don't sound crazy: Michael Seibel is on the board of directors of Reddit. I don't know what sama's involvement is with YC anymore, but I would i

by dmazin 3y ago

dang, just so I don't sound crazy: Michael Seibel is on the board of directors of Reddit. I don't know what sama's involvement is with YC anymore, but I would imagine that his wishes are taken pretty seriously in SV. This is why I think the editorializing should be made clear: even if your title edits are in good faith – which I totally buy – you want to protect community trust.

dang 3y ago
That's true, he is. (I forgot that in fact.) FWIW I've never discussed Reddit with him, and there's no pressure to moderate HN any particular way about these things. Our job at HN is to keep the community happy (er, as happy as possible) and to make HN as good as possible. Those are the things that make HN valuable to YC. It should take only a brief glance at https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=comments%3E10%20reddit&sort=byDate&type=story&storyText=none https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... to decide whether HN is protecting Reddit - the last two weeks have seen a tsunami of threads, almost all negative. Discussion of OpenAI isn't that lopsided but I wouldn't call it positive. sama isn't involved with YC in any way as far as I know. (Edit: I just asked, and it's a bit more complicated than that - he speaks at batch events occasionally, has ownership in past funds like most former employees do, invests in YC startups sometimes, etc.) I appreciate the reference to good faith! that is kind of you. FWIW, the reason we don't mark titles as edited, or comments as edited when commenters edit them, or any of that kind of thing, is because HN's UI has always been minimal and in particular has always avoided ceremonial or bureaucratic trappings. This is the sort of quality that dies by a thousand cuts if you start adding details, and I don't think that would be the right tradeoff. It's just not in the overall spirit of the site. That doesn't mean we're trying to hide anything—we're always happy to answer questions about anything on HN, and I spend most of my time doing so.
- dmazin 3y ago
  Regarding my feature request: that makes sense to me. At least, it’s undeniable that you spend a lot of time engaging with any user who questions things. This serves a similar purpose to what I was proposing, but at the expense of your own time, which I appreciate. That said, other comments of yours (where you speak about the work it takes to give HN the “HN feel”) give me a thought: HN is less a link board than it is an actual, edited, journal (lack of a better word). I mean, links are submitted by users, and upvotes are used as a signal, but unlike Reddit, HN is edited. That’s a good thing, because clearly we find this site useful.

by dmazin 3y ago

dang 3y ago

That's true, he is. (I forgot that in fact.) FWIW I've never discussed Reddit with him, and there's no pressure to moderate HN any particular way about these things. Our job at HN is to keep the community happy (er, as happy as possible) and to make HN as good as possible. Those are the things that make HN valuable to YC. It should take only a brief glance at https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=comments%3E10%20reddit&sort=byDate&type=story&storyText=none https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... to decide whether HN is protecting Reddit - the last two weeks have seen a tsunami of threads, almost all negative. Discussion of OpenAI isn't that lopsided but I wouldn't call it positive. sama isn't involved with YC in any way as far as I know. (Edit: I just asked, and it's a bit more complicated than that - he speaks at batch events occasionally, has ownership in past funds like most former employees do, invests in YC startups sometimes, etc.) I appreciate the reference to good faith! that is kind of you. FWIW, the reason we don't mark titles as edited, or comments as edited when commenters edit them, or any of that kind of thing, is because HN's UI has always been minimal and in particular has always avoided ceremonial or bureaucratic trappings. This is the sort of quality that dies by a thousand cuts if you start adding details, and I don't think that would be the right tradeoff. It's just not in the overall spirit of the site. That doesn't mean we're trying to hide anything—we're always happy to answer questions about anything on HN, and I spend most of my time doing so.

dmazin 3y ago
Regarding my feature request: that makes sense to me. At least, it’s undeniable that you spend a lot of time engaging with any user who questions things. This serves a similar purpose to what I was proposing, but at the expense of your own time, which I appreciate. That said, other comments of yours (where you speak about the work it takes to give HN the “HN feel”) give me a thought: HN is less a link board than it is an actual, edited, journal (lack of a better word). I mean, links are submitted by users, and upvotes are used as a signal, but unlike Reddit, HN is edited. That’s a good thing, because clearly we find this site useful.