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I think the situation has demonstrated a weakness. Elon Musk, unarguably the single most Hacker News person on the planet due to his control of Tesla, SpaceX, T

I think the situation has demonstrated a weakness. Elon Musk, unarguably the single most Hacker News person on the planet due to his control of Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter and others, and now tied up in US politics with DOGE, has completely disappeared from the front page of hacker news, except for the articles you personally have deflagged. And you can't do that 24x7, such as the weekend Treasury Payments got shutdown and apparently nothing newsworthy was done by DOGE or Musk. I was watching articles mentioning either DOGE or Musk in the headline begin flagged in minutes. The same article might stay up for several hours if the headline had been edited to remove the offending words (but that might just be a side effect of getting less traction). And you get stuck with making the call which articles to unflag, based on limited information as they don't hang around long enough to meaningfully get upvotes or beyond the first 15 minutes of irrational blathering in the comments.

dang 2y ago
I agree, it's a weakness. Are there specific stories that you think should have gotten major discussion but didn't? If so, I'd like to see links.
- stubish 2y ago
  At this time, no, discussions have happened elsewhere and it is now old news. But that discussion did happen on articles such as https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42933219 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42933219 , leading to comments like https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=stubish#42942693 https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=stubish#42942693 .
  - dang 2y ago
    I'm sorry but I don't follow what discussions you're saying haven't happened. But in case you (or anyone) are feeling like the current MOT (Major Ongoing Topic) hasn't received much attention on HN, here's a partial list of recent threads: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com' - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42981756 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42981756 - Feb 2025 (1544 comments) (<-- you are here) Elon Musk's Demolition Crew - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42968430 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42968430 - Feb 2025 (353 comments) DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42966412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42966412 - Feb 2025 (107 comments) DOGE employees ordered to stop using Slack - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42951458 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42951458 - Feb 2025 (370 comments) 20k federal workers take "buyout" so far, official says - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42950790 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42950790 - Feb 2025 (547 comments) Onlookers freak out as 25-year-old set loose on Treasury computer system - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42936421 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42936421 - Feb 2025 (133 comments) Payments crisis of 2025: Not “read only” access anymore - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42933219 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42933219 - Feb 2025 (654 comments) The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42910910 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42910910 - Feb 2025 (2977 comments) Phyllis Fong, who was investigating Neuralink, "forcefully removed " - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42902355 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42902355 - Feb 2025 (214 comments) The government information crisis is bigger than you think it is - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42895331 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42895331 - Feb 2025 (270 comments) NSF starts vetting all grants to comply with executive orders - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42886661 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42886661 - Jan 2025 (488 comments) Archivists work to save disappearing data.gov datasets - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42881367 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42881367 - Jan 2025 (238 comments) Trump's Federal Funding Freeze and Mean-Field Game Theory - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42863339 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42863339 - Jan 2025 (89 comments) Deferred resignation email to federal employees - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42859552 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42859552 - Jan 2025 (151 comments) NIH hit with freezes on meetings, travel, communications, and hiring - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42798960 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42798960 - Jan 2025 (440 comments) United States Digital Service renamed to DOGE - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42775684 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42775684 - Jan 2025 (98 comments)
    - leanstartupnoob 2y ago
      First off, thanks for providing all of the moderation energy and you clearly maintain a level of civility on hacker news across a wide range of controversial topics. However, I think placing this long list of stories all under the same MOT demonstrates that conversation is "happening", but at the same time it isn't really happening. One of the key strategies used by Trump and Putin is to flood the zone (“Flood the zone with shit”: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/16/20991816/impeachment-trial-trump-bannon-misinformation https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/16/20991816/i...) As an example, the parent story of this comment is no longer on the front page and instead of anything related to Musk at the fed there is now another distraction about him trying to buy OpenAI. I haven't read all of the above articles, but from just a cursory glance it looks like many different important events are happening. If they happened one at a time over the course of a year no one would consider it MOT, but because its all happening in the same week it gets mashed together. Individual stories quickly fall off the front page.
      - dang 2y ago
        From my perspective, all that is true, but it's not HN's job to be the zone that is flooded by it. HN's job is to be a place for intellectually curious stories and conversations. We have to hold fast to that mandate because if we don't, the site will quickly cease to exist for its intended purpose. What this means in practice is that there's some space for discussing these topics, but only some, and not nearly enough to fully cover everything that's going on right now. I understand that a lot of users want this to be otherwise. Quite rightly, they feel like current events are important and deserve a great deal more airtime. But our first responsibility is to preserve HN for its intended purpose, and HN is not an instrument that can accommodate much more of this. The threads that I listed above are, from HN's point of view, already a lot. It's a pity, because to the extent that discussion here is marginally* more substantive than what's available elsewhere, it's natural to wish that it could be applied to much more important issues. Why care about the origins of Proto-Indo-European when the government is being burned down? and so on. We should turn our attention to the things that matter! But this argument just doesn't work in practice. The only thing that would happen if we "flooded the zone" on HN too is that the place would burn out. * emphasis on "marginally". I'm not claiming it's particularly good—there is a great deal not to like.
- leanstartupnoob 2y ago
  I would like to see some discussion on the Dark Gothic Maga video (How Tech Billionaires Plan to Destroy America) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RpPTRcz1no https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RpPTRcz1no On one hand it comes across like a conspiracy video, but on the other hand she plays direct video clips of major tech figures talking about dismantling the government and dividing the world into small nation states. Trump and Musk have also both stated they want to eliminate large amounts of the federal government. I would love to get some perspective from those who have personally interacted with those people over the last 10 years. This video probably falls under what you consider "activating", but it seems like we need to have conversations around this type of issue rather than letting rational voices get drowned out by the sea of angry shouting.

dang 2y ago

I agree, it's a weakness. Are there specific stories that you think should have gotten major discussion but didn't? If so, I'd like to see links.

stubish 2y ago
At this time, no, discussions have happened elsewhere and it is now old news. But that discussion did happen on articles such as https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42933219 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42933219 , leading to comments like https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=stubish#42942693 https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=stubish#42942693 .
- dang 2y ago
  I'm sorry but I don't follow what discussions you're saying haven't happened. But in case you (or anyone) are feeling like the current MOT (Major Ongoing Topic) hasn't received much attention on HN, here's a partial list of recent threads: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com' - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42981756 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42981756 - Feb 2025 (1544 comments) (<-- you are here) Elon Musk's Demolition Crew - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42968430 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42968430 - Feb 2025 (353 comments) DOGE staffer resigns over racist posts - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42966412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42966412 - Feb 2025 (107 comments) DOGE employees ordered to stop using Slack - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42951458 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42951458 - Feb 2025 (370 comments) 20k federal workers take "buyout" so far, official says - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42950790 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42950790 - Feb 2025 (547 comments) Onlookers freak out as 25-year-old set loose on Treasury computer system - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42936421 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42936421 - Feb 2025 (133 comments) Payments crisis of 2025: Not “read only” access anymore - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42933219 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42933219 - Feb 2025 (654 comments) The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42910910 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42910910 - Feb 2025 (2977 comments) Phyllis Fong, who was investigating Neuralink, "forcefully removed " - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42902355 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42902355 - Feb 2025 (214 comments) The government information crisis is bigger than you think it is - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42895331 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42895331 - Feb 2025 (270 comments) NSF starts vetting all grants to comply with executive orders - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42886661 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42886661 - Jan 2025 (488 comments) Archivists work to save disappearing data.gov datasets - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42881367 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42881367 - Jan 2025 (238 comments) Trump's Federal Funding Freeze and Mean-Field Game Theory - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42863339 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42863339 - Jan 2025 (89 comments) Deferred resignation email to federal employees - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42859552 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42859552 - Jan 2025 (151 comments) NIH hit with freezes on meetings, travel, communications, and hiring - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42798960 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42798960 - Jan 2025 (440 comments) United States Digital Service renamed to DOGE - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42775684 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42775684 - Jan 2025 (98 comments)
  - leanstartupnoob 2y ago
    First off, thanks for providing all of the moderation energy and you clearly maintain a level of civility on hacker news across a wide range of controversial topics. However, I think placing this long list of stories all under the same MOT demonstrates that conversation is "happening", but at the same time it isn't really happening. One of the key strategies used by Trump and Putin is to flood the zone (“Flood the zone with shit”: https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/16/20991816/impeachment-trial-trump-bannon-misinformation https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/1/16/20991816/i...) As an example, the parent story of this comment is no longer on the front page and instead of anything related to Musk at the fed there is now another distraction about him trying to buy OpenAI. I haven't read all of the above articles, but from just a cursory glance it looks like many different important events are happening. If they happened one at a time over the course of a year no one would consider it MOT, but because its all happening in the same week it gets mashed together. Individual stories quickly fall off the front page.
    - dang 2y ago
      From my perspective, all that is true, but it's not HN's job to be the zone that is flooded by it. HN's job is to be a place for intellectually curious stories and conversations. We have to hold fast to that mandate because if we don't, the site will quickly cease to exist for its intended purpose. What this means in practice is that there's some space for discussing these topics, but only some, and not nearly enough to fully cover everything that's going on right now. I understand that a lot of users want this to be otherwise. Quite rightly, they feel like current events are important and deserve a great deal more airtime. But our first responsibility is to preserve HN for its intended purpose, and HN is not an instrument that can accommodate much more of this. The threads that I listed above are, from HN's point of view, already a lot. It's a pity, because to the extent that discussion here is marginally* more substantive than what's available elsewhere, it's natural to wish that it could be applied to much more important issues. Why care about the origins of Proto-Indo-European when the government is being burned down? and so on. We should turn our attention to the things that matter! But this argument just doesn't work in practice. The only thing that would happen if we "flooded the zone" on HN too is that the place would burn out. * emphasis on "marginally". I'm not claiming it's particularly good—there is a great deal not to like.
leanstartupnoob 2y ago
I would like to see some discussion on the Dark Gothic Maga video (How Tech Billionaires Plan to Destroy America) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RpPTRcz1no https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RpPTRcz1no On one hand it comes across like a conspiracy video, but on the other hand she plays direct video clips of major tech figures talking about dismantling the government and dividing the world into small nation states. Trump and Musk have also both stated they want to eliminate large amounts of the federal government. I would love to get some perspective from those who have personally interacted with those people over the last 10 years. This video probably falls under what you consider "activating", but it seems like we need to have conversations around this type of issue rather than letting rational voices get drowned out by the sea of angry shouting.