4 ms·

Yep this happened with my last 3 flagged submissions. All on social issues. Really sad because especially first one listed below I thought would elicit good dis

Yep this happened with my last 3 flagged submissions. All on social issues. Really sad because especially first one listed below I thought would elicit good discussions, somewhat tied other issues like affirmative action. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35867458 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35867458 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36065735 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36065735 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36627969 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36627969

dang 3y ago
I'd say https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35867458 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35867458 was an interesting submission that probably shouldn't have been flagged, although it's doubtful whether a thoughtful, curious discussion is possible. Usually we end up with people charging in and wielding their priors as a stick, and from that point of view I can understand the flags. The other two were too sensational and, in the case of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36627969 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36627969, already a heavily discussed theme, so I'd say they were flagged correctly.
- eduction 3y ago
  Your thinking on these and other posts is narrow minded and totally subservient to the richest people in Silicon Valley, starting with the people who own this site. You also have the temerity to go outside HN and tell people to rewrite posts on other sites - a corrosive form of censorship. Your reply here is a great example of why you are a poor moderator. I wish you would quit.
  - dang 3y ago
    > You also have the temerity to go outside HN and tell people to rewrite posts on other sites - a corrosive form of censorship I don't understand what you're referring to. Can you explain further? Edit: oh, I see - you're talking about https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35719273 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35719273. Yes, sometimes when startups ask me for help, I make suggestions about how they can change their articles to better appeal to HN readers, or to avoid pitfalls. For example, mentioning one's startup only at the end of an otherwise interesting article (which I guess people do because marketers told them it was a "call to action", or something?) makes many HN readers feel like the whole article was a bait-and-switch, and then they rush into comments to complain that the article is "just an ad" or whatnot. That's what happened in that thread - e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35718172 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35718172 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35718321 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35718321. In such cases I advise authors to mention their startup right at the beginning - an easy fix. I don't think most people would call that censorship! - certainly the authors who take the advice do so freely and say they're grateful for it. I can't help but wonder if there's something else to your complaint because it's hard for me to understand why that would be objectionable. If you want to explain more I'd be interested... Btw re "the richest people in SV" - the startup in that case wasn't SV related as far as I know, and certainly not YC related; I believe it's a spinoff from Andy Pavlo's research group at CMU. I wasn't helping them for any reason other than to make the HN thread more interesting and because they emailed to ask.
  - psd1 3y ago
    HN is a living vindication of dang's curation. I say that as someone who has been corrected by dang in the past. I imagine that HN world devolve into a shitshow without him, or someone doing similar work with a similarly deft touch. We owe him our thanks.
1000bestlives 3y ago
Have you tried discussing your non-technical pet topics on a non-technical forum?
- dang 3y ago
  Hey, that's not fair! HN is for everyone's pet topics and non-technical stories are welcome. The only criterion is that they be interesting and gratify curiosity. I mean, there's a high-ranking thread about a huge oak table on the front page right now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36912861 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36912861. As there should be. (You probably already know this but for anyone who doesn't: HN is explicitly not just a technical forum - see https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.)
  - rvba 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - vhlhvjcov 3y ago
      I’m confused, what exactly links the Inquisition, homeowners associations and “diversity groups”? Also what is a diversity group?
      - slater 3y ago
        not op, but a wild guess is i think they're attempting an "oh you know the ones", aka the ones trying for a more equitable society, which the status quo equates with "they're trying to destroy the status quo!"
    - dang 3y ago
      Even if you're right, this is an unprofitable direction for an HN thread to go in. We want curious conversation here, so we have to minimize ideological battle because the two are basically incompatible - see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23959679 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23959679 for a long past explanation about this.
TRiG_Ireland 3y ago
The first looks very interesting. The other two are, unfortunately, now hidden entirely.
- dang 3y ago
  You can turn on 'showdead' in your profile to see everything that has been killed by moderators, software, or user flags. Just be aware that if you do that, you're signing up to see the worst of what the internet has to offer HN—alongside a lot of other stuff that isn't as bad. We never delete things outright, unless the author asks us to, so that setting is basically x-ray glasses into everything.
  - DonHopkins 3y ago
    I'd love to read some of your own flagged and heavily downvoted comments! They must be doozies. Can you do a database query to find the worst? ;)
    - dang 3y ago
      My bottom 10, starting from the bottom: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10877423 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10877423 (Jan 2016 - maybe before we figured out how to treat the dreaded title fever, which drives men mad like mosquitoes in the old northwest) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7611005 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7611005 (April 2014 - what a time warp - remember when anything anti-Elon would get flamed?) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8477279 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8477279 (Oct 2014 - thank god I changed it back or lord knows how bad it couldve gotten) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14248635 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14248635 (May 2017 - everyone wants more monthly threads until the front page fills up with them, guess how you'd like that now) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11608112 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11608112 (May 2016 - fair play for airbnb? how dare i?) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10564079 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10564079 (Nov 2015 - ugh. hn must have gotten better about religious flamewar because that one made me cringe) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17780480 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17780480 (Aug 2018 - i probably wouldn't do that now - but please come back, pvg) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8759235 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8759235 (Dec 2014 - i'm sorry don't hit me!) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13752227 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13752227 (Feb 2017 - oho! we can detach things!) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8809021 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8809021 (Dec 2014 - i have sweeter ways of making the exact same point now)

dang 3y ago

I'd say https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35867458 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35867458 was an interesting submission that probably shouldn't have been flagged, although it's doubtful whether a thoughtful, curious discussion is possible. Usually we end up with people charging in and wielding their priors as a stick, and from that point of view I can understand the flags. The other two were too sensational and, in the case of https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36627969 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36627969, already a heavily discussed theme, so I'd say they were flagged correctly.

eduction 3y ago
Your thinking on these and other posts is narrow minded and totally subservient to the richest people in Silicon Valley, starting with the people who own this site. You also have the temerity to go outside HN and tell people to rewrite posts on other sites - a corrosive form of censorship. Your reply here is a great example of why you are a poor moderator. I wish you would quit.
- dang 3y ago
  > You also have the temerity to go outside HN and tell people to rewrite posts on other sites - a corrosive form of censorship I don't understand what you're referring to. Can you explain further? Edit: oh, I see - you're talking about https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35719273 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35719273. Yes, sometimes when startups ask me for help, I make suggestions about how they can change their articles to better appeal to HN readers, or to avoid pitfalls. For example, mentioning one's startup only at the end of an otherwise interesting article (which I guess people do because marketers told them it was a "call to action", or something?) makes many HN readers feel like the whole article was a bait-and-switch, and then they rush into comments to complain that the article is "just an ad" or whatnot. That's what happened in that thread - e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35718172 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35718172 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35718321 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35718321. In such cases I advise authors to mention their startup right at the beginning - an easy fix. I don't think most people would call that censorship! - certainly the authors who take the advice do so freely and say they're grateful for it. I can't help but wonder if there's something else to your complaint because it's hard for me to understand why that would be objectionable. If you want to explain more I'd be interested... Btw re "the richest people in SV" - the startup in that case wasn't SV related as far as I know, and certainly not YC related; I believe it's a spinoff from Andy Pavlo's research group at CMU. I wasn't helping them for any reason other than to make the HN thread more interesting and because they emailed to ask.
- psd1 3y ago
  HN is a living vindication of dang's curation. I say that as someone who has been corrected by dang in the past. I imagine that HN world devolve into a shitshow without him, or someone doing similar work with a similarly deft touch. We owe him our thanks.

1000bestlives 3y ago

Have you tried discussing your non-technical pet topics on a non-technical forum?

dang 3y ago
Hey, that's not fair! HN is for everyone's pet topics and non-technical stories are welcome. The only criterion is that they be interesting and gratify curiosity. I mean, there's a high-ranking thread about a huge oak table on the front page right now: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36912861 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36912861. As there should be. (You probably already know this but for anyone who doesn't: HN is explicitly not just a technical forum - see https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.)
- rvba 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - vhlhvjcov 3y ago
    I’m confused, what exactly links the Inquisition, homeowners associations and “diversity groups”? Also what is a diversity group?
    - slater 3y ago
      not op, but a wild guess is i think they're attempting an "oh you know the ones", aka the ones trying for a more equitable society, which the status quo equates with "they're trying to destroy the status quo!"
  - dang 3y ago
    Even if you're right, this is an unprofitable direction for an HN thread to go in. We want curious conversation here, so we have to minimize ideological battle because the two are basically incompatible - see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23959679 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23959679 for a long past explanation about this.

TRiG_Ireland 3y ago

The first looks very interesting. The other two are, unfortunately, now hidden entirely.

dang 3y ago
You can turn on 'showdead' in your profile to see everything that has been killed by moderators, software, or user flags. Just be aware that if you do that, you're signing up to see the worst of what the internet has to offer HN—alongside a lot of other stuff that isn't as bad. We never delete things outright, unless the author asks us to, so that setting is basically x-ray glasses into everything.
- DonHopkins 3y ago
  I'd love to read some of your own flagged and heavily downvoted comments! They must be doozies. Can you do a database query to find the worst? ;)
  - dang 3y ago
    My bottom 10, starting from the bottom: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10877423 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10877423 (Jan 2016 - maybe before we figured out how to treat the dreaded title fever, which drives men mad like mosquitoes in the old northwest) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7611005 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7611005 (April 2014 - what a time warp - remember when anything anti-Elon would get flamed?) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8477279 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8477279 (Oct 2014 - thank god I changed it back or lord knows how bad it couldve gotten) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14248635 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14248635 (May 2017 - everyone wants more monthly threads until the front page fills up with them, guess how you'd like that now) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11608112 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11608112 (May 2016 - fair play for airbnb? how dare i?) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10564079 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10564079 (Nov 2015 - ugh. hn must have gotten better about religious flamewar because that one made me cringe) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17780480 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17780480 (Aug 2018 - i probably wouldn't do that now - but please come back, pvg) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8759235 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8759235 (Dec 2014 - i'm sorry don't hit me!) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13752227 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13752227 (Feb 2017 - oho! we can detach things!) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8809021 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8809021 (Dec 2014 - i have sweeter ways of making the exact same point now)