4 ms·

Ask HN: Why no posts about the elephant in the room?

8 points by xchip 3y ago

ClassyJacket 3y ago
What elephant?
- xchip 3y ago
  Anything that might be in all newspapers right now
  - lusus_naturae 3y ago
    Feel free to post something yourself?
    - dredmorbius 3y ago
      This. Be the discussion you want to see online. Though also be mindful of HN's guidelines. Notably: Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. <https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html> Much as I'm interested in insightful discussion of major news events, that's something HN's readership doesn't tend to handle particularly well. Specific angles of such events might make for interesting discussion, however. (I've addressed a couple of those on the Fediverse, including "Roof Knocking", and various ballistic weapons & defences.)
  - AnimalMuppet 3y ago
    Yeah, what lusus said. Stop vagueposting. If you want to say something, say it.
bpiche 3y ago
Annie? Im wondering the same thing
smoldesu 3y ago
Because Hacker News is a finance/tech forum, not a site for elephant enthusiasts.
- xchip 3y ago
  In theory you'd be right, but in the practice we talk about everything. Just try searching for Ukraine or Russia and you'll find endless posts.
  - smoldesu 3y ago
    In practice, hundreds of Ukraine and Russia-related posts were flagged when it was news. There is no strictly reliable bar of guidelines enforcement, flagging posts is almost entirely handled by users. dang isn't hovering over the "kill" button on your favorite threads, the community is flagging them because they are probably flamebait.
    - dredmorbius 3y ago
      The more submissions there are on a given topic, the greater the number of submissions that will be flagged. That's both a law of averages, and HN's aversion to repeat / duplicate discussion: The intention is not to suppress an important topic but to hold the countless me-too posts at bay—the ones that don't add anything significant. When the massive wave subsides, we'll remove the penalty. For example, there was a period where HN did this for NSA stories, but that hasn't been the case for a while. <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8461596 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8461596> That said, yes, the vast majority of moderation is done by HN's readers, not mods.
  - darkclouds 3y ago
    [dead]
thesuperbigfrog 3y ago
Here you go: Baby elephant conceived via artificial insemination and born at the Indianapolis Zoo needs a name: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2023/10/04/baby-elephant-indianapolis-zoo-needs-name-maji-jabari-zambezi/71060479007/ https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2023/10/04/baby-elephant... He is really cute.
ChumpGPT 3y ago
Israel/Hamas?
bell-cot 3y ago
Looks like there are a few, but we're just not that interested in the him: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=Robert%20F.%20Kennedy%20Jr&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... Or did you mean the more-literal elephant? We're still not all that interested: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=donald%20trump&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
devonnull 3y ago
If you're going to post something like this, at least mention what said elephant is. It might not be as obvious to others as it is to you. And that current so-called elephant in the room might be different depending on where you live. That said, I wouldn't mind seeing more discussion about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babar_the_Elephant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babar_the_Elephant
dredmorbius 3y ago
If you've got a specific elephant in mind, state what it is. Vague guessing games are tiresome. Better yet, find some HN-relevant angle on the story and post it. HN's guidelines deprecate most (which is of course not all) mainstream news. Topics, issues, and source articles which are too broad, long, dense, or abstract ... tend not to be discussed well. Find something shorter and more specifically focused. Stories which are literally about nationalistic wars, metaphorical or very, very, very material, tend to do poorly not only at HN but anywhere online. You can submit an link with a comment of your own highlighting what you think is salient about it. And in the case of the ongoing situation in Israel and Gaza concerning Hamas, there've been at least 25 distinct submissions within the past week: "israel" (25 hits): <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1696909371&dateRange=custom&dateStart=1695686400&page=0&prefix=true&query=israel&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1696909371&dateRange=custom&...> "hamas" (15 hits): <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1696909371&dateRange=custom&dateStart=1695686400&page=0&prefix=true&query=hamas&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1696909371&dateRange=custom&...> "gaza" (7 hits): <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1696909371&dateRange=custom&dateStart=1695686400&page=0&prefix=true&query=gaza&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1696909371&dateRange=custom&...> (Some overlap amongst those, though I've not counted specifically how much.)

8 points by xchip 3y ago

ClassyJacket 3y ago

What elephant?

xchip 3y ago
Anything that might be in all newspapers right now
- lusus_naturae 3y ago
  Feel free to post something yourself?
  - dredmorbius 3y ago
    This. Be the discussion you want to see online. Though also be mindful of HN's guidelines. Notably: Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. <https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html> Much as I'm interested in insightful discussion of major news events, that's something HN's readership doesn't tend to handle particularly well. Specific angles of such events might make for interesting discussion, however. (I've addressed a couple of those on the Fediverse, including "Roof Knocking", and various ballistic weapons & defences.)
- AnimalMuppet 3y ago
  Yeah, what lusus said. Stop vagueposting. If you want to say something, say it.

bpiche 3y ago

Annie? Im wondering the same thing

smoldesu 3y ago

Because Hacker News is a finance/tech forum, not a site for elephant enthusiasts.

xchip 3y ago
In theory you'd be right, but in the practice we talk about everything. Just try searching for Ukraine or Russia and you'll find endless posts.
- smoldesu 3y ago
  In practice, hundreds of Ukraine and Russia-related posts were flagged when it was news. There is no strictly reliable bar of guidelines enforcement, flagging posts is almost entirely handled by users. dang isn't hovering over the "kill" button on your favorite threads, the community is flagging them because they are probably flamebait.
  - dredmorbius 3y ago
    The more submissions there are on a given topic, the greater the number of submissions that will be flagged. That's both a law of averages, and HN's aversion to repeat / duplicate discussion: The intention is not to suppress an important topic but to hold the countless me-too posts at bay—the ones that don't add anything significant. When the massive wave subsides, we'll remove the penalty. For example, there was a period where HN did this for NSA stories, but that hasn't been the case for a while. <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8461596 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8461596> That said, yes, the vast majority of moderation is done by HN's readers, not mods.
- darkclouds 3y ago
  [dead]

thesuperbigfrog 3y ago

Here you go: Baby elephant conceived via artificial insemination and born at the Indianapolis Zoo needs a name: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2023/10/04/baby-elephant-indianapolis-zoo-needs-name-maji-jabari-zambezi/71060479007/ https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2023/10/04/baby-elephant... He is really cute.

ChumpGPT 3y ago

Israel/Hamas?

bell-cot 3y ago

Looks like there are a few, but we're just not that interested in the him: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=Robert%20F.%20Kennedy%20Jr&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... Or did you mean the more-literal elephant? We're still not all that interested: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=donald%20trump&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

devonnull 3y ago

If you're going to post something like this, at least mention what said elephant is. It might not be as obvious to others as it is to you. And that current so-called elephant in the room might be different depending on where you live. That said, I wouldn't mind seeing more discussion about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babar_the_Elephant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babar_the_Elephant

dredmorbius 3y ago

If you've got a specific elephant in mind, state what it is. Vague guessing games are tiresome. Better yet, find some HN-relevant angle on the story and post it. HN's guidelines deprecate most (which is of course not all) mainstream news. Topics, issues, and source articles which are too broad, long, dense, or abstract ... tend not to be discussed well. Find something shorter and more specifically focused. Stories which are literally about nationalistic wars, metaphorical or very, very, very material, tend to do poorly not only at HN but anywhere online. You can submit an link with a comment of your own highlighting what you think is salient about it. And in the case of the ongoing situation in Israel and Gaza concerning Hamas, there've been at least 25 distinct submissions within the past week: "israel" (25 hits): <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1696909371&dateRange=custom&dateStart=1695686400&page=0&prefix=true&query=israel&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1696909371&dateRange=custom&...> "hamas" (15 hits): <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1696909371&dateRange=custom&dateStart=1695686400&page=0&prefix=true&query=hamas&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1696909371&dateRange=custom&...> "gaza" (7 hits): <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1696909371&dateRange=custom&dateStart=1695686400&page=0&prefix=true&query=gaza&sort=byDate&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1696909371&dateRange=custom&...> (Some overlap amongst those, though I've not counted specifically how much.)