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Why? It doesn’t have much to do with tech or startups. Go to Reddit or a forum if you want to discuss geopolitical topics.

by cebert 1y ago

Jimmc414 1y ago
Look at how many posts currently in the top 500 that meet that definition regarding Brazil, Ukraine or China. I was logged out of HN for even asking this, so I am likely on the cusp of being banned. I've been a member of this site for years and have always strived to be respectful and a good faith contributor.
- its-summertime 1y ago
  for stories of the past year, and due to algolia not presenting removed threads: "Palistin" returns 142 results (typo tolerance to catch both relevant endings) "Brazil" returns 366 results "Israel" returns 401 "Ukraine" returns 632 "Gaza" returns 842 "China" returns 3,436 Could probably total the points as well, see how many points per story, etc
  - gus_massa 1y ago
    Note that in this list China may include: fake title> Researchers in China create new type of solar panel fake title> Military in China make new weapon preparing invasion
- dang 1y ago
  > I was logged out of HN for even asking this We don't do that. What did you see that made you think it happened? (Specifically, HN has no software that would log any user out for asking a question, nor any moderator who would do that manually.)
  - Jimmc414 1y ago
    I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I was immediately logged out right after posting which I had never experienced before. I would consider myself a daily user. I assumed I had just received a ban or suspension and was surprised when I was able to log in on another device. If HN doesn't do that, I take you at your word and chalk it up as an anomaly with unfortunate timing.
    - dang 1y ago
      We definitely don't. Btw if you ever have a question like this or see something weird on HN, etc., you can always email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll be happy to look into it. With comments in the threads, it's pretty random what we happen to run across, and we can't respond to what we don't see. Not yet anyway!
dang 1y ago
HN is about more than just tech and startups. That's why https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html has always said "more than hacking and startups" right in the opening paragraph. In fact, that's the genesis of HN: pg got bored of reading only about tech and startups and renamed Startup News to Hacker News back in 2007 (https://news.ycombinator.com/hackernews.html https://news.ycombinator.com/hackernews.html). There's room for stories with political overlap. At the same time, we can't have too many, or HN would turn into a current affairs site and cease to be HN. That's a tough set of constraints. We've found an approach over the years which balances the tradeoffs well enough (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...), but it has the disadvantage of not satisfying everybody. Actually, it has the disadvantage of not satisfying anybody who feels passionately about a given topic. That's especially true of the Israel/Gaza topic. There are many readers who feel like HN is unfairly suppressing it, and there are also many readers who feel like HN is unfairly featuring it. The other disadvantage is that there's no effective way to communicate about this to the community. No matter how many explanations we post, the set of users who actually get the message always seems to have measure zero (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20measure%20zero&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...).

Why? It doesn’t have much to do with tech or startups. Go to Reddit or a forum if you want to discuss geopolitical topics.

by cebert 1y ago

Why? It doesn’t have much to do with tech or startups. Go to Reddit or a forum if you want to discuss geopolitical topics.

Jimmc414 1y ago

Look at how many posts currently in the top 500 that meet that definition regarding Brazil, Ukraine or China. I was logged out of HN for even asking this, so I am likely on the cusp of being banned. I've been a member of this site for years and have always strived to be respectful and a good faith contributor.

its-summertime 1y ago
for stories of the past year, and due to algolia not presenting removed threads: "Palistin" returns 142 results (typo tolerance to catch both relevant endings) "Brazil" returns 366 results "Israel" returns 401 "Ukraine" returns 632 "Gaza" returns 842 "China" returns 3,436 Could probably total the points as well, see how many points per story, etc
- gus_massa 1y ago
  Note that in this list China may include: fake title> Researchers in China create new type of solar panel fake title> Military in China make new weapon preparing invasion
dang 1y ago
> I was logged out of HN for even asking this We don't do that. What did you see that made you think it happened? (Specifically, HN has no software that would log any user out for asking a question, nor any moderator who would do that manually.)
- Jimmc414 1y ago
  I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I was immediately logged out right after posting which I had never experienced before. I would consider myself a daily user. I assumed I had just received a ban or suspension and was surprised when I was able to log in on another device. If HN doesn't do that, I take you at your word and chalk it up as an anomaly with unfortunate timing.
  - dang 1y ago
    We definitely don't. Btw if you ever have a question like this or see something weird on HN, etc., you can always email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll be happy to look into it. With comments in the threads, it's pretty random what we happen to run across, and we can't respond to what we don't see. Not yet anyway!

dang 1y ago

HN is about more than just tech and startups. That's why https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html has always said "more than hacking and startups" right in the opening paragraph. In fact, that's the genesis of HN: pg got bored of reading only about tech and startups and renamed Startup News to Hacker News back in 2007 (https://news.ycombinator.com/hackernews.html https://news.ycombinator.com/hackernews.html). There's room for stories with political overlap. At the same time, we can't have too many, or HN would turn into a current affairs site and cease to be HN. That's a tough set of constraints. We've found an approach over the years which balances the tradeoffs well enough (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...), but it has the disadvantage of not satisfying everybody. Actually, it has the disadvantage of not satisfying anybody who feels passionately about a given topic. That's especially true of the Israel/Gaza topic. There are many readers who feel like HN is unfairly suppressing it, and there are also many readers who feel like HN is unfairly featuring it. The other disadvantage is that there's no effective way to communicate about this to the community. No matter how many explanations we post, the set of users who actually get the message always seems to have measure zero (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20measure%20zero&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...).