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Wonder why this made the frontpage when other political articles die. Has the rules around political non technical articles changed? Can we get an Epstein thr
by ipaddr 1y ago
Wonder why this made the frontpage when other political articles die.
Has the rules around political non technical articles changed? Can we get an Epstein thread for the frontpage sometime this week?
- dang 1y agoNo, the rules haven't changed—they've been the same for many years. Let me try to dig up some past explanations. Edit: here's one from a few months ago, which covers the principles: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43738815 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43738815. Re how we approach political topics (or political overlap) on HN in general: 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... Re how we deal with Major Ongoing Topics, i.e. topics where there are a ton of articles and submissions over time: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20major%20ongoing%20topic&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... Re how we approach turning off flags: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20turn%20off%20flags&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... Re the perception that "HN has been getting more political lately" (spoiler: it hasn't - though it does fluctuate): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17014869 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17014869. If you or anyone will check out some of those links and still have a question that isn't answered there, I'd be happy to take a crack at it.
- decayiscreation 1y ago[flagged]
- dang 1y agoI've never discussed this topic with Garry and no one at YC has tried to influence how we moderate HN on this or any other political topic. You might want to check out the part of the HN FAQ which explains that the moderators are editorially independent: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html.
- EvgeniyZh 1y ago[flagged]
- Ozzie_osman 1y agoI feel like parent probably meant Paul Graham. Garry holds polar opposite opinions (he blocked me on X because he had had made claims about what Intifada means, and as an Arabic speaker I felt compelled to point out the correct meaning). In any case, I don't think Paul or Garry are interfering with the algorithm or moderation here.
- decayiscreation 1y agoYep, I meant pg
- hirvi74 1y agoWhat does the word Intifada actually mean? You have piqued my interest now.
- dotancohen 1y agoI believe that it means "a shaking" as in "to shake off". But Arabic is not my first language (nor my second, it's number 4).
- adastra22 1y agoNot a speaker either, but I understand “uprising” to be a better translation.
- dotancohen 1y agoWell yes, a shaking off would be an uprising. But the root of the word is literally the verb "to shake". I'll give you another one you might like. The root of the word Shahid in Arabic is "witness". This is another term that Western media likes to use incorrectly.
- roughly 1y agoJust wanna say this is the kind of day where I feel like I should send you a fruit basket or something for the work you do here.
- thegrim33 1y agoLooking at the official HN guidelines, it states that "Most stories about politics" is off-topic, and "If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic". Is the Isreal/Gaza debate not political, and not mainstream news? How does a story like this not directly violate those guidelines? Furthermore, the guidelines state that stories should be what "good hackers" find "intellectually satisfying". A political debate thread about Isreal is what "good hackers" would find intellectually satisfying? I just can not understand how a story such as this in any way remotely meets the established, official guidelines for what belongs here. Considering these threads also, universally, just devolve in political flamewars / hate spreading. There's nothing constructive here. There's no debate. There's no opposing ideas/opinions allowed.
- bigyabai 1y agoIsrael and Israeli businesses are an intractable part of the modern American tech scene. Mellanox, for example, is the cited reason Nvidia ships any datacenter-scale interconnect at all today. America's highest-tech defense contractors work in direct concert with Rafael et. al, and companies like Cellebrite are suppliers of US law enforcement. When the equation changes vis-a-vis Israel's credibility, this entire Jenga structure has to be reevaluated. It's not satisfying to think about, but it is intellectually prudent and remains important regardless of how civil the response ends up being.
- hirvi74 1y ago> When the equation changes vis-a-vis Israel's credibility, this entire Jenga structure has to be reevaluated. It's not satisfying to think about, but it is intellectually prudent and remains important regardless of how civil the response ends up being. If the topics and responses pertained to such a discussion, then that would be one thing. However, it seems like that is not what is being discussed in this topic nor comments section.
- timcobb 1y agoYet buried 3 or 4 levels in the comments is where you find this post :)
- 1y ago
- cptnapalm 1y agoI think you are the only good moderator on the internet.
- belorn 1y agoIt would be interesting to know how articles like this compared to the average article. How are the ratios of downvotes to upvotes, flagged to non-flagged, and comments to views? Are people who comment here positively or negative correlating to creating non-flaged/downvoted comments on other articles? To phrase it a bit differently, does this kind of articles create a positive or negative engagement for HN?
- dang 1y agoMany more downvotes and flags for sure. I can't answer your other questions without specifically looking into it, but my guess would be many more comments and much more negativity.
- HaZeust 1y agoOne question went unanswered: Can we get an Epstein thread this week?
- throwaway3060 1y agoWhen having a politically-controversial long-running Major Ongoing Topic with multiple unflagged submissions, is there any obligation to keep some semblance of balance over the submissions that get flags disabled? When the articles making the front page disproportionately favor one side, it is hard to not get the impression that these are the only articles on that issue getting flags disabled.
- xinuc 1y ago[flagged]
- _DeadFred_ 1y ago[flagged]
- banku_brougham 1y agomaybe because we are two years into an event that will define the early 21st century.
- margalabargala 1y agoWhat about "there is war in the middle east, still/again" is remotely unique enough in the last century to be a defining moment of the half-century? If an event has the potential to be that, it's the near-peer land war in Europe. The current Israel/Gaza conflict is a blip that is mildly different in degree than the same thing that has happened every decade or so since Israel was created.
- rf15 1y agoNot to this degree in the last few decades. But I feel you are overall correct, it's just that the Internet allows for much bigger coverage of the details of the horrors committed, and it's interesting how governments around the world now fail so completely to shape the narrative.
- margalabargala 1y agoYeah it's worse. The October 7th attacks were way worse than Hamas attacks that came before in recent history. The response was way worse than what has happened before in recent history. And so both sides feel fully justified with their courses of action, because of what the other side did to them. That is the part that is so much not unique.
- throwaway3060 1y agoGovernments are still shaping the narrative, it's just that the ones that are most skilled and successful in manipulating social media happen to be the non-Western ones (Think about China controlling Tiktok, or the various Russia election influence theories).
- ukblewis 1y ago[flagged]
- Fraterkes 1y agoC'mon man, the Charlie Kirk post stayed on the front-page for a pretty long time.
- Zhenya 1y ago[flagged]
- JumpCrisscross 1y agoFor me, this is meaningful because for the first time a legitimate international body is calling this a genocide. Previously, it’s been activists and claims that this might be genocide. I haven’t read the report yet. But I will, and I intend to leave my mind open as to whether this raises the profile of this war in my mind relative to domestic issues.
- dmbche 1y agoFrancesca Albanese has held the genocide line since day one as the UN special rapporteur on israel and palestine
- dotancohen 1y agoShe's hardly impartial. Her husband worked for the Palestinian Authority.
- dmbche 1y agoWether she is or not is not for me to decide - at any rate, her analysis seems to have been absolutely spot on if we are now recognizing it is a genocide, isn't it? And if you think the UN rapporteur is too biased to do their job correctly, why do you care what the UN does?
- dotancohen 1y ago[flagged]
- dmbche 1y ago[flagged]
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago> her analysis seems to have been absolutely spot on if we are now recognizing it is a genocide, isn't it? No, no more than someone who predicts a market crash every day is proven right the one time they nail it. The quality and objectivity of the analysis matters. Not just the conclusion.