2 ms·

This isn’t the first article about serious wrongdoings of the current administration, and apologists show up in every single one of the threads. Why should we p

This isn’t the first article about serious wrongdoings of the current administration, and apologists show up in every single one of the threads. Why should we pretend we were born this morning, rather than learning from what has happened before and use that to predict what will happen now?

tomhow 1y ago
These kinds of "predictions" are really a signal that the story doesn't belong on Hacker News. Predictability and repetition is exactly what we don't want on HN, and is the main reason why politics-related stories are generally discouraged (the comments tend to be the same even if the specific story is different). If we're going to have politics-related stories on the front page of HN, the stories need to have something new about them that at least have a chance of cultivating curious conversation. When the top comment is this kind of pre-emptive attack, it starts the discussion by breaking the guidelines from the get-go, and from there things can only go downhill further. The relevant guidelines are: Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes. Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity. Please don't pick the most provocative thing in an article or post to complain about in the thread. Find something interesting to respond to instead. Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data.
- mcphage 1y ago
  > These kinds of "predictions" are really a signal that the story doesn't belong on Hacker News. Maybe, but we’ve had articles for years posted on HN claiming any minor slight is an attack on free speech. And now that we have actual attacks on free speech occurring, there’s no way I’d accept HN closing their eyes. Sorry if you don’t like reading these kind of stories, but that’s too damn bad.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

tomhow 1y ago

These kinds of "predictions" are really a signal that the story doesn't belong on Hacker News. Predictability and repetition is exactly what we don't want on HN, and is the main reason why politics-related stories are generally discouraged (the comments tend to be the same even if the specific story is different). If we're going to have politics-related stories on the front page of HN, the stories need to have something new about them that at least have a chance of cultivating curious conversation. When the top comment is this kind of pre-emptive attack, it starts the discussion by breaking the guidelines from the get-go, and from there things can only go downhill further. The relevant guidelines are: Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes. Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity. Please don't pick the most provocative thing in an article or post to complain about in the thread. Find something interesting to respond to instead. Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data.

mcphage 1y ago
> These kinds of "predictions" are really a signal that the story doesn't belong on Hacker News. Maybe, but we’ve had articles for years posted on HN claiming any minor slight is an attack on free speech. And now that we have actual attacks on free speech occurring, there’s no way I’d accept HN closing their eyes. Sorry if you don’t like reading these kind of stories, but that’s too damn bad.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]