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Is Graham still involved in HN? While it's true that he has spoken against Trump many times, Garry Tan is very close to Thiel, Musk, and the MAGA movement in g

by pera 1y ago

Is Graham still involved in HN? While it's true that he has spoken against Trump many times, Garry Tan is very close to Thiel, Musk, and the MAGA movement in general. Didn't he recently show support for DOGE as well? Of course, YC is more than its current CEO and hopefully this doesn't affect the moderation of this website :)

tptacek 1y ago
No, but he's (AFAIK) the Chairperson of YC itself.
tomhow 1y ago
> Is Graham still involved in HN? He's on the board of YC, which appoints the CEO [1], and he still has a lot of influence. He still has dinner with dang from time to time to talk about HN [2]. > While it's true that he has spoken against Trump many times, Garry Tan is very close to Thiel, Musk, and the MAGA movement in general. Didn't he recently show support for DOGE as well? I don't think that's a completely accurate characterisation. Garry continues to identify as a Democrat [3]. He works with people across the political spectrum to make the playing field fair for the earliest-stage startups, which is consistent with his roles as an early-stage investor and a partner (and now CEO) of YC for over a decade. Just a couple of weeks ago he hosted the Little Tech Competition Summit [4] in DC, featuring speakers from different sides and parts of government. One of the most notable speeches was by Cory Booker, who talked at length about the importance of making entrepreneurship accessible to people of all socioeconomic backgrounds, which is a cause Garry deeply supports, given his own life experience. > Of course, YC is more than its current CEO and hopefully this doesn't affect the moderation of this website :) Exactly :) If we were making moderation decisions to serve individuals or agendas that supposedly our “salary depends on”, we'd tie ourselves in knots. Our job is to keep HN a great place for intellectual curiosity. [1] https://www.forbes.com.au/covers/innovation/y-combinator-startup-factory/ https://www.forbes.com.au/covers/innovation/y-combinator-sta... [2] https://x.com/paulg/status/1758191829491859607 https://x.com/paulg/status/1758191829491859607 [3] https://x.com/search?q=from%3Agarrytan%20democrat&src=typed_query&f=live https://x.com/search?q=from%3Agarrytan%20democrat&src=typed_... [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjIJOfgVgu0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjIJOfgVgu0
- alganet 1y ago
  > Our job is to keep HN a great place for intellectual curiosity. Can you elaborate on that?
  - tomhow 1y ago
    Dang has written about it a lot over the years: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20intellectually%20curious&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... It's also the core principle of HN, as stated at the beginning of the guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Feel free to ask any further questions not answered in the links above!
    - alganet 1y ago
      Thanks! Sure, I'll just ask directly: Q: Do you know of any experiments of psychological or sociological nature ran on the HN platform or its participants? Q: If you knew that such experiments take place, would you be able to confirm it publicly?
      - tomhow 1y ago
        This is quite the curveball, but, sure: this would never happen. The primary guiding principle of HN moderation is that community trust and goodwill is the most precious thing we have, and any action that diminishes it would destroy HN and everything we've worked for. The community scrutinizes everything we do. I can't fathom any such experiment that would be remotely beneficial to HN/YC that would be worth diminishing community trust for. Can you? Edit: why this question, by the way? https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20community%20trust&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
        alganet 1y ago
        There has been some strange submissions and comments lately. Discussions feel out of place. The expression "intellectual curiosity" grabbed my attention. Whatever is happening is definitely curious from an intellectual point of view, but it feels weird.

by pera 1y ago

tptacek 1y ago

No, but he's (AFAIK) the Chairperson of YC itself.

tomhow 1y ago

> Is Graham still involved in HN? He's on the board of YC, which appoints the CEO [1], and he still has a lot of influence. He still has dinner with dang from time to time to talk about HN [2]. > While it's true that he has spoken against Trump many times, Garry Tan is very close to Thiel, Musk, and the MAGA movement in general. Didn't he recently show support for DOGE as well? I don't think that's a completely accurate characterisation. Garry continues to identify as a Democrat [3]. He works with people across the political spectrum to make the playing field fair for the earliest-stage startups, which is consistent with his roles as an early-stage investor and a partner (and now CEO) of YC for over a decade. Just a couple of weeks ago he hosted the Little Tech Competition Summit [4] in DC, featuring speakers from different sides and parts of government. One of the most notable speeches was by Cory Booker, who talked at length about the importance of making entrepreneurship accessible to people of all socioeconomic backgrounds, which is a cause Garry deeply supports, given his own life experience. > Of course, YC is more than its current CEO and hopefully this doesn't affect the moderation of this website :) Exactly :) If we were making moderation decisions to serve individuals or agendas that supposedly our “salary depends on”, we'd tie ourselves in knots. Our job is to keep HN a great place for intellectual curiosity. [1] https://www.forbes.com.au/covers/innovation/y-combinator-startup-factory/ https://www.forbes.com.au/covers/innovation/y-combinator-sta... [2] https://x.com/paulg/status/1758191829491859607 https://x.com/paulg/status/1758191829491859607 [3] https://x.com/search?q=from%3Agarrytan%20democrat&src=typed_query&f=live https://x.com/search?q=from%3Agarrytan%20democrat&src=typed_... [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjIJOfgVgu0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjIJOfgVgu0

alganet 1y ago
> Our job is to keep HN a great place for intellectual curiosity. Can you elaborate on that?
- tomhow 1y ago
  Dang has written about it a lot over the years: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20intellectually%20curious&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... It's also the core principle of HN, as stated at the beginning of the guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Feel free to ask any further questions not answered in the links above!
  - alganet 1y ago
    Thanks! Sure, I'll just ask directly: Q: Do you know of any experiments of psychological or sociological nature ran on the HN platform or its participants? Q: If you knew that such experiments take place, would you be able to confirm it publicly?
    - tomhow 1y ago
      This is quite the curveball, but, sure: this would never happen. The primary guiding principle of HN moderation is that community trust and goodwill is the most precious thing we have, and any action that diminishes it would destroy HN and everything we've worked for. The community scrutinizes everything we do. I can't fathom any such experiment that would be remotely beneficial to HN/YC that would be worth diminishing community trust for. Can you? Edit: why this question, by the way? https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20community%20trust&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
      - alganet 1y ago
        There has been some strange submissions and comments lately. Discussions feel out of place. The expression "intellectual curiosity" grabbed my attention. Whatever is happening is definitely curious from an intellectual point of view, but it feels weird.