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All unmoderated social networks are either dorky or abusive. Dorky is actually the best case scenario. Hacker News is dorky/abusive, too. Have you noticed? Wh

All unmoderated social networks are either dorky or abusive. Dorky is actually the best case scenario. Hacker News is dorky/abusive, too. Have you noticed? When strangers interact with each other, that’s what happens.

Zandikar 3y ago
What's your definition of unmoderated? Did you mean uncurated?
- satisfice 3y ago
  I mean no human moderators to break up fights and assure adherence to terms and conditions. Algorithms don't cut it, for me. "Voting" is no substitute, either.
  - Zandikar 3y ago
    Both HN and LinkedIn have moderators that do just that, they're not algorithms. LinkedIn sucks imo, but to claim that either but especially HN is unmoderated or has no moderators is certainly untrue.
    - satisfice 3y ago
      You say it's untrue. I guess you are technically, right, because the word "moderator" appears in the FAQ a few times. So, I should be more specific. In the years I have been using HN and commenting, I have never seen a moderator visibly intervene to enforce the submission guidelines for comments. Perhaps they intervene by silently killing threads in extreme cases? I've never seen a moderator write anything AS a moderator to improve an interaction. The guidelines say don't be snarky. But I've gotten a lot of snark from people in comments. I've dished out the snark, as well. Nobody stops them. Nobody stops me. This is what I'm talking about. The few forums I'm on that are consistently professional and non-dorky have visible moderators. We know who they are. They comment on what's happening. They give warnings. That's what I mean by moderation.
      - dang 3y ago
        I just ran across this by accident (ironically?) whilst posting https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36753185 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36753185. I've written* tens of thousands of moderation comments over many years—you can find them here: https://news.ycombinator.com/posts?id=dang https://news.ycombinator.com/posts?id=dang. As you can see, I've written a ton as a moderator to try to improve interactions on HN. The interesting thing is that even after all that, some users (who knows how many, but probably quite a few) have no idea. It's tempting to overinterpret that, but it's explicable by randomness alone. Even in a rainstorm, a few spots stay dry because no raindrop hits them. In any case, please don't dish out snark, regardless of how badly other commenters are doing that or you feel they are. We eventually ban accounts that keep doing that! even if randomness gives them a long run beforehand. * (I'm using the first person here because I'm currently the only mod who posts publicly to HN. There used to be another (sctb) but he's back to being a civilian. Ditto for pg before that of course.)
Quinzel 3y ago
I actually hadn’t noticed that HN is dorky/abusive.
- hyperdimension 3y ago
  Where else can you find people disagreeing with each other starting their post with "False."? Or the use of words like disingenuous or orthogonal? I mean I keep coming back, but there is a distinctive 'flavor' of discourse (for lack of a better word) here.
- satisfice 3y ago
  You haven't noticed... I guess you aren't taking a stand in your comments and getting people trying to rhetorically gut punch you in return, in the sense of instantly dismissing whatever experience you may have or ignoring the thrust of your argument and siezing upon a small thing and acting as if that's the only thing you said? See what happens when you go against the cultural grain around here, man. Or maybe I'm the only one experiencing it... But it's not all the time, or else I would stop commenting altogether. (FWIW, the challenge you just made is reasonable and not any sort of abuse.)
  - Quinzel 3y ago
    Well, I guess I see people assert their beliefs as though they are an authority on any given topic on here for sure and any comment that challenges their belief is seen as an insult, or a threat to someone else’s position of authority or their expertise. It’s all relative though I don’t mind if people disagree with me or challenge my assumptions or whatever, sometimes people can be rude about it, that says more about them than the person they are being rude/abusive to.

Zandikar 3y ago

What's your definition of unmoderated? Did you mean uncurated?

satisfice 3y ago
I mean no human moderators to break up fights and assure adherence to terms and conditions. Algorithms don't cut it, for me. "Voting" is no substitute, either.
- Zandikar 3y ago
  Both HN and LinkedIn have moderators that do just that, they're not algorithms. LinkedIn sucks imo, but to claim that either but especially HN is unmoderated or has no moderators is certainly untrue.
  - satisfice 3y ago
    You say it's untrue. I guess you are technically, right, because the word "moderator" appears in the FAQ a few times. So, I should be more specific. In the years I have been using HN and commenting, I have never seen a moderator visibly intervene to enforce the submission guidelines for comments. Perhaps they intervene by silently killing threads in extreme cases? I've never seen a moderator write anything AS a moderator to improve an interaction. The guidelines say don't be snarky. But I've gotten a lot of snark from people in comments. I've dished out the snark, as well. Nobody stops them. Nobody stops me. This is what I'm talking about. The few forums I'm on that are consistently professional and non-dorky have visible moderators. We know who they are. They comment on what's happening. They give warnings. That's what I mean by moderation.
    - dang 3y ago
      I just ran across this by accident (ironically?) whilst posting https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36753185 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36753185. I've written* tens of thousands of moderation comments over many years—you can find them here: https://news.ycombinator.com/posts?id=dang https://news.ycombinator.com/posts?id=dang. As you can see, I've written a ton as a moderator to try to improve interactions on HN. The interesting thing is that even after all that, some users (who knows how many, but probably quite a few) have no idea. It's tempting to overinterpret that, but it's explicable by randomness alone. Even in a rainstorm, a few spots stay dry because no raindrop hits them. In any case, please don't dish out snark, regardless of how badly other commenters are doing that or you feel they are. We eventually ban accounts that keep doing that! even if randomness gives them a long run beforehand. * (I'm using the first person here because I'm currently the only mod who posts publicly to HN. There used to be another (sctb) but he's back to being a civilian. Ditto for pg before that of course.)

Quinzel 3y ago

I actually hadn’t noticed that HN is dorky/abusive.

hyperdimension 3y ago
Where else can you find people disagreeing with each other starting their post with "False."? Or the use of words like disingenuous or orthogonal? I mean I keep coming back, but there is a distinctive 'flavor' of discourse (for lack of a better word) here.
satisfice 3y ago
You haven't noticed... I guess you aren't taking a stand in your comments and getting people trying to rhetorically gut punch you in return, in the sense of instantly dismissing whatever experience you may have or ignoring the thrust of your argument and siezing upon a small thing and acting as if that's the only thing you said? See what happens when you go against the cultural grain around here, man. Or maybe I'm the only one experiencing it... But it's not all the time, or else I would stop commenting altogether. (FWIW, the challenge you just made is reasonable and not any sort of abuse.)
- Quinzel 3y ago
  Well, I guess I see people assert their beliefs as though they are an authority on any given topic on here for sure and any comment that challenges their belief is seen as an insult, or a threat to someone else’s position of authority or their expertise. It’s all relative though I don’t mind if people disagree with me or challenge my assumptions or whatever, sometimes people can be rude about it, that says more about them than the person they are being rude/abusive to.