5 ms·

dang is an amazing moderator

by light_triad 2y ago

zfg 2y ago
Nah, he's become a cynic. dang thinks Hacker News is a "swamp of amnesia". It's not a great attitude.
- thomassmith65 2y ago
  That reflects well on his communication skills; 'Swamp of Amnesia' is a less hackneyed phrase than 'Eternal September'
  - zfg 2y ago
    No, he thinks things don't matter because no one will remember them. He's wrong.
    - thomassmith65 2y ago
      Dan's moderation practices are viewable via his comment history*. They align well with my preferences, but, with a little imagination, I can see how some people wouldn't like them. One person's idea of good moderation is another person's terrible moderation. * https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dang https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dang
      - zfg 2y ago
        You're not seeing everything he does. For example, he removes capabilities from people's accounts and he can't remember why he did it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42917749 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42917749 He says he likes things to be "informal" by which he really means "opaque".
        dang 2y ago
        By informal I do not mean opaque. What I mean is that anyone is welcome to ask questions about HN and we're happy to answer them. What we don't do is try to answer all the questions in advance. That's for several reasons, the first of which is that it's impossible.
        zfg 2y ago
        But you're not willing to be upfront by including that information on the user's account. That's opaque.
        dang 2y ago
        No, that's formal. Formal systems that purport to answer all questions in advance are a bureaucratic bane, and as long as I'm in charge of HN, we won't go there. I'm confident that the community feels the same way. If there's any information that someone wants to find out about HN or HN moderation, all they need to do is ask us.
        zfg 2y ago
        Dude, you're leaving people guessing. That's no good. That is not nice "informality".
        deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
        rpmisms 2y ago
        I don't like tone policing in general, but be nice to dang. He has earned that courtesy, at least.
        cess11 2y ago
        I don't think it's a good idea to complain publicly about the moderation regime here. To me it seems dang and whoever else has thought things through and made reasonable decisions based on, among other considerations, the amount of labour they have at their disposal. Changing that would likely require a very strong incentive, and chatter does not amount to one.
        setnone 2y ago
        HN is a very particular public digital garden and @dang is a gardener doing his gardening stuff, just wondering what is your purpose here if you don't mind sharing?
- dredmorbius 2y ago
  For those curious about the source: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43097876 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43097876>
  - pesus 2y ago
    Looks like he's just talking about how users that start flame wars around the contentious topic of the day will forget about it soon and move on to the next topic. Even if you disagree with him in regards to the topic that was posted on, I don't see how anyone can honestly misinterpret that badly enough to think he's describing HN as a whole.
- RGamma 2y ago
  The "amnesia problem" needs active effort to counteract. Without longitudinal story-telling like you would get in a well-maintained wiki or book, it's inevitable eventually... I think it's become a huge society-scale problem caused by information overload, and I don't see it improving any time soon.

dang is an amazing moderator

zfg 2y ago

Nah, he's become a cynic. dang thinks Hacker News is a "swamp of amnesia". It's not a great attitude.

thomassmith65 2y ago
That reflects well on his communication skills; 'Swamp of Amnesia' is a less hackneyed phrase than 'Eternal September'
- zfg 2y ago
  No, he thinks things don't matter because no one will remember them. He's wrong.
  - thomassmith65 2y ago
    Dan's moderation practices are viewable via his comment history*. They align well with my preferences, but, with a little imagination, I can see how some people wouldn't like them. One person's idea of good moderation is another person's terrible moderation. * https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dang https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dang
    - zfg 2y ago
      You're not seeing everything he does. For example, he removes capabilities from people's accounts and he can't remember why he did it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42917749 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42917749 He says he likes things to be "informal" by which he really means "opaque".
      - dang 2y ago
        By informal I do not mean opaque. What I mean is that anyone is welcome to ask questions about HN and we're happy to answer them. What we don't do is try to answer all the questions in advance. That's for several reasons, the first of which is that it's impossible.
        zfg 2y ago
        But you're not willing to be upfront by including that information on the user's account. That's opaque.
        dang 2y ago
        No, that's formal. Formal systems that purport to answer all questions in advance are a bureaucratic bane, and as long as I'm in charge of HN, we won't go there. I'm confident that the community feels the same way. If there's any information that someone wants to find out about HN or HN moderation, all they need to do is ask us.
        zfg 2y ago
        Dude, you're leaving people guessing. That's no good. That is not nice "informality".
        deleted 2y ago
        [deleted]
        rpmisms 2y ago
        I don't like tone policing in general, but be nice to dang. He has earned that courtesy, at least.
        cess11 2y ago
        I don't think it's a good idea to complain publicly about the moderation regime here. To me it seems dang and whoever else has thought things through and made reasonable decisions based on, among other considerations, the amount of labour they have at their disposal. Changing that would likely require a very strong incentive, and chatter does not amount to one.
      - setnone 2y ago
        HN is a very particular public digital garden and @dang is a gardener doing his gardening stuff, just wondering what is your purpose here if you don't mind sharing?
dredmorbius 2y ago
For those curious about the source: <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43097876 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43097876>
- pesus 2y ago
  Looks like he's just talking about how users that start flame wars around the contentious topic of the day will forget about it soon and move on to the next topic. Even if you disagree with him in regards to the topic that was posted on, I don't see how anyone can honestly misinterpret that badly enough to think he's describing HN as a whole.
RGamma 2y ago
The "amnesia problem" needs active effort to counteract. Without longitudinal story-telling like you would get in a well-maintained wiki or book, it's inevitable eventually... I think it's become a huge society-scale problem caused by information overload, and I don't see it improving any time soon.