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This of course leads to the question "What counts as a political post?". The reality is: Everything is connected and interacts and we usually prefer to ignore

This of course leads to the question "What counts as a political post?". The reality is: Everything is connected and interacts and we usually prefer to ignore this fact, because it "makes things easier" (only on the surface). There is a huge link between technology and politics. Personally, I believe it is in our future's interest that we learn to think more complexly. EDIT: Can you answer the question "What counts as a political post?", so we're on the same page?

kmfrk 13y ago
People use the meaningless term "hacker" as an excuse to submit and comment on everything in my experience. The idea of letting users self-moderate on HN has failed, in my opinion. If admins allow these stories, albeit tacitly, then they won't go away. We've had countless of threads discussing this to no effect already, and nothing's changed.
DanBC 13y ago
Here's my opinion. "Political" would tend to mean something that people take a fixed view on, and where they're unlikely to change their opinion even if you present nice data to support your view. "$PARTY has problems with massive IT project" isn't necessarily political. "Dumb $PARTYians screw up yet another simple project!!1!" probably is. It's probably best to avoid, even if there is a tech link:- Israel / Palestine Circumcision (ie, even if the story is "new laser robot performs safe circumcision" it's probably best to avoid it.) Abortion Political processes as they're happening (ie, if the primaries are in progress, don't talk about them) Anything more about Snowden or NSA or spying. You should have assumed your email was open to all, that's been common advice since email was invented, and we've been warning you about Echelon and similar since the 90's. Global warming unless you can ignore the trolls Sexism unless you can ignore the hateful trolls etc etc etc. I would seriously prefer to read tabs vs spaces or vi vs emacs than a lot of the stuff on the front page.

kmfrk 13y ago

People use the meaningless term "hacker" as an excuse to submit and comment on everything in my experience. The idea of letting users self-moderate on HN has failed, in my opinion. If admins allow these stories, albeit tacitly, then they won't go away. We've had countless of threads discussing this to no effect already, and nothing's changed.

DanBC 13y ago

Here's my opinion. "Political" would tend to mean something that people take a fixed view on, and where they're unlikely to change their opinion even if you present nice data to support your view. "$PARTY has problems with massive IT project" isn't necessarily political. "Dumb $PARTYians screw up yet another simple project!!1!" probably is. It's probably best to avoid, even if there is a tech link:- Israel / Palestine Circumcision (ie, even if the story is "new laser robot performs safe circumcision" it's probably best to avoid it.) Abortion Political processes as they're happening (ie, if the primaries are in progress, don't talk about them) Anything more about Snowden or NSA or spying. You should have assumed your email was open to all, that's been common advice since email was invented, and we've been warning you about Echelon and similar since the 90's. Global warming unless you can ignore the trolls Sexism unless you can ignore the hateful trolls etc etc etc. I would seriously prefer to read tabs vs spaces or vi vs emacs than a lot of the stuff on the front page.