5 ms·

One of the things that makes HN great is that it largely avoids the Current Thing discussion. There's plenty of places to get into that. Can't we have one that

One of the things that makes HN great is that it largely avoids the Current Thing discussion. There's plenty of places to get into that. Can't we have one that's focused entirely on hacker news and not any political news?

dang 2y ago
(hmm that's a frequently asked question; I wonder if we should have a list of such things) If you want to know how we think about this, here's a pointer to a bunch of past explanations: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=political%20overlap%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...
dredmorbius 2y ago
HN is increasingly a significant participant in current US politics. Attempting to pretend otherwise really doesn't work. HN has a policy of moderating discussions of YC companies less than other threads (and yes, "less" != "not at all"). There's a strong argument that a similar policy should apply to HN-adjacent politics and political acts. Posting to what was once called Twitter today is an increasingly political act. and a strongly anti-democratic one. Yang (as evidenced by his Wikipedia bio) is a political actor.
- pvg 2y ago
  HN is increasingly a significant participant in current US politics. HN is about the size of a medium-popular subreddit. Its impact on US politics is not much different than that of /r/relationshipadvice.
  - dredmorbius 2y ago
    HN is the media arm of a venture fund with a portfolio nearing a trillion dollars, as mentioned prominently in TFA. If you want to talk size, the US House has 438 members, the Senate 100, the Supreme court 9. Their significance has nothing to do with size and everything to do with position, connections, and capacity. HN punches far above its weight.
    - ellis0n 2y ago
      Unfortunately, politics is everywhere where there is more than one person and something to divide, and America is the most politicized country in the world where everything is highly regulated by laws, because the laws are strictly enforced. Politicians fight for power = control over people's lives and that’s how money and the economy are created, so everything becomes secondary to politics. If the world’s politicians would unite and stop wars and do everything for the humanity, we would have hundreds and thousands of better YCs across the planet. But until that happens, it’s better to sell a startup to politicians for big money. For now, we have the only wonder of the world, YC in the USA which is the best, as long as this forum hasn’t closed, IMHO.
    - pvg 2y ago
      HN is the media arm of a venture fund I'm looking at a medium sized nerd messageboard. Obviously that's not a meaningful thing to compare to a legislative body or court.

dang 2y ago

(hmm that's a frequently asked question; I wonder if we should have a list of such things) If you want to know how we think about this, here's a pointer to a bunch of past explanations: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=political%20overlap%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...

dredmorbius 2y ago

HN is increasingly a significant participant in current US politics. Attempting to pretend otherwise really doesn't work. HN has a policy of moderating discussions of YC companies less than other threads (and yes, "less" != "not at all"). There's a strong argument that a similar policy should apply to HN-adjacent politics and political acts. Posting to what was once called Twitter today is an increasingly political act. and a strongly anti-democratic one. Yang (as evidenced by his Wikipedia bio) is a political actor.

pvg 2y ago
HN is increasingly a significant participant in current US politics. HN is about the size of a medium-popular subreddit. Its impact on US politics is not much different than that of /r/relationshipadvice.
- dredmorbius 2y ago
  HN is the media arm of a venture fund with a portfolio nearing a trillion dollars, as mentioned prominently in TFA. If you want to talk size, the US House has 438 members, the Senate 100, the Supreme court 9. Their significance has nothing to do with size and everything to do with position, connections, and capacity. HN punches far above its weight.
  - ellis0n 2y ago
    Unfortunately, politics is everywhere where there is more than one person and something to divide, and America is the most politicized country in the world where everything is highly regulated by laws, because the laws are strictly enforced. Politicians fight for power = control over people's lives and that’s how money and the economy are created, so everything becomes secondary to politics. If the world’s politicians would unite and stop wars and do everything for the humanity, we would have hundreds and thousands of better YCs across the planet. But until that happens, it’s better to sell a startup to politicians for big money. For now, we have the only wonder of the world, YC in the USA which is the best, as long as this forum hasn’t closed, IMHO.
  - pvg 2y ago
    HN is the media arm of a venture fund I'm looking at a medium sized nerd messageboard. Obviously that's not a meaningful thing to compare to a legislative body or court.