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Does it matter whether it's a loss to HN? When people/groups abuse their privileges, taking those privileges away is not a bad thing. Maybe having a few good si

Does it matter whether it's a loss to HN? When people/groups abuse their privileges, taking those privileges away is not a bad thing. Maybe having a few good sites block HN would cause commenters to think more carefully before posting vitriol, or upvoting it. I missed the thread the first time around, but I looked it up, and it's pretty disappointing. Despite there being lots of top-level comments about the actual content of the blog post, the highest top-level comment is just a mean personal attack. I see it on a lot of other HN posts too, and I don't get it. How does it contribute anything to say that this or that topic isn't worth talking about and, by the way, the author smells and he has a funny name?

duaneb 13y ago
Linking is not a privilege. If you put your stuff out on the internet you can't choose who gets to discuss it. I don't approve of HN's conduct at all, it's one of the things I detest about internet communities, and HN, though the best of them, is no exception. But asking HN to change because someone was offended by the most predictable behavior is silly.
- itsybitsycoder 13y ago
  As jgrahamc mentioned, you can choose to block incoming traffic with HN as the referrer (although this is not foolproof for a number of reasons); you do not have the right to download other people's content without restriction. Also, you do not have the right to have your discussion hosted on HN; if pg chose to, he would be well within his own rights to implement a feature like this.
  - duaneb 13y ago
    > Also, you do not have the right to have your discussion hosted on HN; if pg chose to, he would be well within his own rights to implement a feature like this. I agree; I wasn't taking a stance on whether or not HN should do so. I was simply pointing out the irony of a blogger protesting about being linked.

duaneb 13y ago

Linking is not a privilege. If you put your stuff out on the internet you can't choose who gets to discuss it. I don't approve of HN's conduct at all, it's one of the things I detest about internet communities, and HN, though the best of them, is no exception. But asking HN to change because someone was offended by the most predictable behavior is silly.

itsybitsycoder 13y ago
As jgrahamc mentioned, you can choose to block incoming traffic with HN as the referrer (although this is not foolproof for a number of reasons); you do not have the right to download other people's content without restriction. Also, you do not have the right to have your discussion hosted on HN; if pg chose to, he would be well within his own rights to implement a feature like this.
- duaneb 13y ago
  > Also, you do not have the right to have your discussion hosted on HN; if pg chose to, he would be well within his own rights to implement a feature like this. I agree; I wasn't taking a stance on whether or not HN should do so. I was simply pointing out the irony of a blogger protesting about being linked.