4 ms·

It's a very privacy-hostile site, it's the only site I've ever used where I can't delete my comments. Since I don't have control over my content here I'd never

It's a very privacy-hostile site, it's the only site I've ever used where I can't delete my comments. Since I don't have control over my content here I'd never associate it with my real name. I don't remember everything I posted ten years ago. None of it was blatantly terrible, but I have evolved and don't know if I stand behind everything I've ever said. I could only consider an account here to be for throwaway content.

s1artibartfast 3y ago
I have likely posted some terrible things online on various sites that could easily get me fired or cause me trouble. Sometimes these are illustrations in debate to demonstrate a repugnant conclusion. Sometimes they have been roleplaying the opposite of my actual position, to better understand it. Sometimes I have just had bad takes. I think all of these are natural and healthy parts of the human growth, and legitimate uses of online conversation. Not everyone else feels this way, or care about the context of speech they find objectionable.
tailspin2019 3y ago
I do kind of agree with this, and I definitely resonate with not wanting to have to worry about what I said ten years ago. But to the degree that HN is "privacy hostile" as you put it, with regards to not being able to delete comments, I'd say that it's also "privacy friendly" to an almost equal degree, given there is absolutely no personal information required in order to create an account. And there is none of the usual invasive social network crap which drives me away from literally every online platform apart from HN.
StreetChief 3y ago
I wish I had been this smart.
- fsflover 3y ago
  You can always create a new account.
  - StreetChief 3y ago
    The old comments are associated forever. I'm choosing to be more careful of my comments at the moment, but I may need to create a new account at some point to discuss things anonymously.
    - pitherpather 3y ago
      If the comment history is considered sacrosanct, it could be nice to be able to go back and retroactively change the username for an account, at least.
      - krapp 3y ago
        Comment history shouldn't be considered sacrosanct. This is just a web forum, nothing happening here needs to preserved for the ages. If Reddit and literally every other forum in existence can manage to allow users to delete comments, Hacker News should be able to manage as well.
        EchoChamberMan 3y ago
        Yea, I imagine this is hacker news idolizing themselves a bit, i.e. "we are very smart and this is useful discussion." Unfortunately we don't have the GDPR here in the US, with a right to deletion like in the EU, and I don't expect we'll get those features without some privacy laws.
        arp242 3y ago
        "Right to deletion" doesn't apply to "anything I want deleted", but only to PII within the context of the GDPR. In my reading "everything I ever posted to HN" doesn't really fall under that. If you have some specific comment for a specific reason then that would be different. On reddit this is a right pain, and really fragments discussions. Ending up in a 7 year old discussion with half the comments [deleted] or "I've overwritten all my comments with this bot" is not brilliant. Doubly so when you're trying to find a solution for a technical problem.
bell-cot 3y ago
> ... it's the only site I've ever used where I can't delete ... Between "how deleted are my comments, really?" issues, and the number of sites that get hacked in a given week - I would not trust anybody's supposed "delete" feature for anything important. (And for critical stuff...you might be able to talk @dang into performing a Sword, +Admin deletion here.)
dang 3y ago
It's true that we don't delete entire histories wholesale, but we have a big bag of other tricks to help with privacy requests, and we take care of such requests every day. We just try to do it with more precise tools than wholesale deletion. I realize it's not everything, but it's also not nothing. If anyone has an issue like this, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll see what we can do.

s1artibartfast 3y ago

I have likely posted some terrible things online on various sites that could easily get me fired or cause me trouble. Sometimes these are illustrations in debate to demonstrate a repugnant conclusion. Sometimes they have been roleplaying the opposite of my actual position, to better understand it. Sometimes I have just had bad takes. I think all of these are natural and healthy parts of the human growth, and legitimate uses of online conversation. Not everyone else feels this way, or care about the context of speech they find objectionable.

tailspin2019 3y ago

I do kind of agree with this, and I definitely resonate with not wanting to have to worry about what I said ten years ago. But to the degree that HN is "privacy hostile" as you put it, with regards to not being able to delete comments, I'd say that it's also "privacy friendly" to an almost equal degree, given there is absolutely no personal information required in order to create an account. And there is none of the usual invasive social network crap which drives me away from literally every online platform apart from HN.

StreetChief 3y ago

I wish I had been this smart.

fsflover 3y ago
You can always create a new account.
- StreetChief 3y ago
  The old comments are associated forever. I'm choosing to be more careful of my comments at the moment, but I may need to create a new account at some point to discuss things anonymously.
  - pitherpather 3y ago
    If the comment history is considered sacrosanct, it could be nice to be able to go back and retroactively change the username for an account, at least.
    - krapp 3y ago
      Comment history shouldn't be considered sacrosanct. This is just a web forum, nothing happening here needs to preserved for the ages. If Reddit and literally every other forum in existence can manage to allow users to delete comments, Hacker News should be able to manage as well.
      - EchoChamberMan 3y ago
        Yea, I imagine this is hacker news idolizing themselves a bit, i.e. "we are very smart and this is useful discussion." Unfortunately we don't have the GDPR here in the US, with a right to deletion like in the EU, and I don't expect we'll get those features without some privacy laws.
        arp242 3y ago
        "Right to deletion" doesn't apply to "anything I want deleted", but only to PII within the context of the GDPR. In my reading "everything I ever posted to HN" doesn't really fall under that. If you have some specific comment for a specific reason then that would be different. On reddit this is a right pain, and really fragments discussions. Ending up in a 7 year old discussion with half the comments [deleted] or "I've overwritten all my comments with this bot" is not brilliant. Doubly so when you're trying to find a solution for a technical problem.

bell-cot 3y ago

> ... it's the only site I've ever used where I can't delete ... Between "how deleted are my comments, really?" issues, and the number of sites that get hacked in a given week - I would not trust anybody's supposed "delete" feature for anything important. (And for critical stuff...you might be able to talk @dang into performing a Sword, +Admin deletion here.)

dang 3y ago

It's true that we don't delete entire histories wholesale, but we have a big bag of other tricks to help with privacy requests, and we take care of such requests every day. We just try to do it with more precise tools than wholesale deletion. I realize it's not everything, but it's also not nothing. If anyone has an issue like this, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll see what we can do.