3 ms·

Cancel Culture in Hacker News

9 points by heyheyhouhou 3y ago

Since the start of the conflict I've seen how hackernews moderators have been flagging, down-voting and removing from the front page links that are not aligned with the western propaganda. I was very naive with this community. There is brilliant people and brilliant discussions, but we are all afraid to the repercussions. Companies like Google, Meta, Amazon, Stripe, Intel, Siemens, Sequoia Capital boycotting Web summit for a more than a reasonable post of the "resigned CEO" saying "war crimes are war crimes even when committed by allies" shows the hypocrisy of these companies. We keep improving the technology but we are loosing all the humanity. I'm very sad and hopeless

jrflowers 3y ago
[flagged]
- bell-cot 3y ago
  (The best 0-point-font "/s" that I've seen in a while, whether intended or not.)
  - isthatafact 3y ago
    It could actually be an honest question for those of us who cannot abide the cesspool of twitter, facebook, reddit, etc. If the comments section on the site of a tech-focussed venture capital firm is stumped on the question of where to discuss item x in the news, then something is wrong with the situation.
throwawaysleep 3y ago
I assume you are talking about the current conflict in the Middle East. That is generally off topic per the guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > 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. Israel vs Palestine is an old conflict with few updates but troop movements and body counts.
- heyheyhouhou 3y ago
  I understand that there is certain guidelines to maintain sanity. I totally agree with that. But I've seen very strange behavior in the last weeks with the submitted stories or even comments suddenly removed or shadowed. How could this be flagged? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37975898 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37975898 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37997076 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37997076 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38018995 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38018995 Or why this very relevant story is not showing in the front page? It has considerably a lot of comments and upvotes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38045514 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38045514
  - austin-cheney 3y ago
    Anybody can flag at any time. It only takes 4 sad people for a thread or comment to achieve flagged status. As an example anything with negative commentary about Julian Assange is instantly flagged because there is a cult that hangs on his every word.
    - throw310822 3y ago
      It's a mechanism that makes sense to prevent flamewars and a lot of silly political discussion; however it's also an invaluable tool for anyone who doesn't want some topic discussed at all.
  - defrost 3y ago
    > It has considerably a lot of comments and upvotes As of this comment it has 100 upvotes and 400 comments. That alone, regardless of subject matter and guidelines keeps it from the front page as the placement algorithm favours posts with more upvotes than comments. Threads that attract many many comments but relatively few upvotes in comparison are weighted down.
ta_vf7xjd34cc 3y ago
> I'm very sad and hopeless Well, the entire Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh was driven out of the region by Azerbaijan as the world watched in utter silence. These things happen. Morality and ethics are purely theoretical constructs that are meant to be used against your opponent in order to get them to back down. At least that is how they are normally employed in the real world.
wrp 3y ago
HN is nice as a place to have (sometimes) well-informed and moderated discussions about technical things. It would be great to have an equivalent forum for political subjects, but it doesn't exist and probably can't. I'm afraid HN is only hurt by trying to bring it here. That said, HN is uneven in its treatment of political topics. Some pretty toxic posting is allowed if it follows certain lines while other things can be flagged for just a whiff of going against the grain.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
JohnFen 3y ago
HN isn't the appropriate forum for political discussions (at least ones that aren't tech-focused). That's a good thing. We should have a place where we can just talk about tech issues. There's no shortage of other fora where political discussions and arguments are welcomed.

9 points by heyheyhouhou 3y ago

jrflowers 3y ago

[flagged]

bell-cot 3y ago
(The best 0-point-font "/s" that I've seen in a while, whether intended or not.)
- isthatafact 3y ago
  It could actually be an honest question for those of us who cannot abide the cesspool of twitter, facebook, reddit, etc. If the comments section on the site of a tech-focussed venture capital firm is stumped on the question of where to discuss item x in the news, then something is wrong with the situation.

throwawaysleep 3y ago

I assume you are talking about the current conflict in the Middle East. That is generally off topic per the guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > 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. Israel vs Palestine is an old conflict with few updates but troop movements and body counts.

heyheyhouhou 3y ago
I understand that there is certain guidelines to maintain sanity. I totally agree with that. But I've seen very strange behavior in the last weeks with the submitted stories or even comments suddenly removed or shadowed. How could this be flagged? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37975898 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37975898 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37997076 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37997076 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38018995 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38018995 Or why this very relevant story is not showing in the front page? It has considerably a lot of comments and upvotes - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38045514 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38045514
- austin-cheney 3y ago
  Anybody can flag at any time. It only takes 4 sad people for a thread or comment to achieve flagged status. As an example anything with negative commentary about Julian Assange is instantly flagged because there is a cult that hangs on his every word.
  - throw310822 3y ago
    It's a mechanism that makes sense to prevent flamewars and a lot of silly political discussion; however it's also an invaluable tool for anyone who doesn't want some topic discussed at all.
- defrost 3y ago
  > It has considerably a lot of comments and upvotes As of this comment it has 100 upvotes and 400 comments. That alone, regardless of subject matter and guidelines keeps it from the front page as the placement algorithm favours posts with more upvotes than comments. Threads that attract many many comments but relatively few upvotes in comparison are weighted down.

ta_vf7xjd34cc 3y ago

> I'm very sad and hopeless Well, the entire Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh was driven out of the region by Azerbaijan as the world watched in utter silence. These things happen. Morality and ethics are purely theoretical constructs that are meant to be used against your opponent in order to get them to back down. At least that is how they are normally employed in the real world.

wrp 3y ago

HN is nice as a place to have (sometimes) well-informed and moderated discussions about technical things. It would be great to have an equivalent forum for political subjects, but it doesn't exist and probably can't. I'm afraid HN is only hurt by trying to bring it here. That said, HN is uneven in its treatment of political topics. Some pretty toxic posting is allowed if it follows certain lines while other things can be flagged for just a whiff of going against the grain.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

JohnFen 3y ago

HN isn't the appropriate forum for political discussions (at least ones that aren't tech-focused). That's a good thing. We should have a place where we can just talk about tech issues. There's no shortage of other fora where political discussions and arguments are welcomed.