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> Please don't post on HN to ask or tell us something. Send it to hn@ycombinator.com. > Please don't complain that a submission is inappropriate. If a story is

by akerl_ 3y ago

> Please don't post on HN to ask or tell us something. Send it to hn@ycombinator.com. > Please don't complain that a submission is inappropriate. If a story is spam or off-topic, flag it. Don't feed egregious comments by replying; flag them instead. If you flag, please don't also comment that you did. > Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data.

gnicholas 3y ago
The first guideline is about submissions, not commenting. The second and third are not quite on-point because the commenter is not saying that the post is inappropriate per se, but that it's part of a pattern of inappropriate behavior. I, for one, and glad that the commenter added to the conversation in this way. I can see I'm not alone, as the post was subsequently flagged (to be clear, I didn't flag it).
- tptacek 3y ago
  They didn't add to the conversation. They inserted an off-topic digression about the submitter of the story, who has nothing to do with the story or with Dan Luu. Before other people downvoted and flagged it, it was sprawling out from the top comment on the thread. That's why we have these guidelines: to keep stuff like this from crudding up threads. I'm also not sure what you mean by flagging; the story isn't flagged, and is on the front page right now.
  - gnicholas 3y ago
    If you view this through a micro-lens, then it leads you to focus on the 'crudding up' of the thread. But if you take a macro view, then you consider the bigger-picture impact that the submitter's behavior has on HN as a whole. Could the commenter have just emailed HN? Sure. But by commenting, the commenter shared this information with the community, who were then able to upvote the comment (I did) and flag the post (I did not). This is a valuable service IMO. It provides the HN team with additional feedback and alerts other HNers to a way in which the community is being used, perhaps not for the best.
    - pvg 3y ago
      The view has been taken at sufficient zoom levels to have multiple specific guidelines and dozens of moderator comments. It's just not the case that nobody has thought about this much or discussed it on HN repeatedly. As to 'valuable service', what the HN moderators ask in their own guidelines regarding feedback is very likely a better indication of value than 'IYO'.
      - gnicholas 3y ago
        As explained above, none of the guidelines actually addresses this type of comment. Also, it's obviously not just IMO, since as I mentioned other people have flagged the post, presumably after being educated by this comment.
        tptacek 3y ago
        It's fine. If you care, pay attention to how things like this go in the future, and I think it'll rapidly become clear to you what the norms are. If you really care, do what obsessives do, and follow Dan's comments, which are an informal mod-log for the site. We don't have to keep talking about this.
        pvg 3y ago
        none of the guidelines actually addresses this type of comment They do. A significant chunk of the site guidelines boils down to 'no meta' and even address the specific kind of meta in the comments - meta about appropriateness of submissions and meta about the alleged misbehaviour of others. The fact that it's not just your opinion doesn't change the fact that the mods have said this kind of commentary does not, in fact, provide value to them which was your claim. But like tptacek says, just read/follow dang's comments, almost everything gets recycled through there on a regular basis.

by akerl_ 3y ago

gnicholas 3y ago

The first guideline is about submissions, not commenting. The second and third are not quite on-point because the commenter is not saying that the post is inappropriate per se, but that it's part of a pattern of inappropriate behavior. I, for one, and glad that the commenter added to the conversation in this way. I can see I'm not alone, as the post was subsequently flagged (to be clear, I didn't flag it).

tptacek 3y ago
They didn't add to the conversation. They inserted an off-topic digression about the submitter of the story, who has nothing to do with the story or with Dan Luu. Before other people downvoted and flagged it, it was sprawling out from the top comment on the thread. That's why we have these guidelines: to keep stuff like this from crudding up threads. I'm also not sure what you mean by flagging; the story isn't flagged, and is on the front page right now.
- gnicholas 3y ago
  If you view this through a micro-lens, then it leads you to focus on the 'crudding up' of the thread. But if you take a macro view, then you consider the bigger-picture impact that the submitter's behavior has on HN as a whole. Could the commenter have just emailed HN? Sure. But by commenting, the commenter shared this information with the community, who were then able to upvote the comment (I did) and flag the post (I did not). This is a valuable service IMO. It provides the HN team with additional feedback and alerts other HNers to a way in which the community is being used, perhaps not for the best.
  - pvg 3y ago
    The view has been taken at sufficient zoom levels to have multiple specific guidelines and dozens of moderator comments. It's just not the case that nobody has thought about this much or discussed it on HN repeatedly. As to 'valuable service', what the HN moderators ask in their own guidelines regarding feedback is very likely a better indication of value than 'IYO'.
    - gnicholas 3y ago
      As explained above, none of the guidelines actually addresses this type of comment. Also, it's obviously not just IMO, since as I mentioned other people have flagged the post, presumably after being educated by this comment.
      - tptacek 3y ago
        It's fine. If you care, pay attention to how things like this go in the future, and I think it'll rapidly become clear to you what the norms are. If you really care, do what obsessives do, and follow Dan's comments, which are an informal mod-log for the site. We don't have to keep talking about this.
      - pvg 3y ago
        none of the guidelines actually addresses this type of comment They do. A significant chunk of the site guidelines boils down to 'no meta' and even address the specific kind of meta in the comments - meta about appropriateness of submissions and meta about the alleged misbehaviour of others. The fact that it's not just your opinion doesn't change the fact that the mods have said this kind of commentary does not, in fact, provide value to them which was your claim. But like tptacek says, just read/follow dang's comments, almost everything gets recycled through there on a regular basis.