4 ms·

Anonymous threats doesn't harm anyone.

• Karunamon 13y ago
  In the general case, this is true, but in the specific case, not so much. While a threat doesn't actually do any harm to a person, it does ruin discourse. Reason being that some people are more sensitive than others, and will not post things that they feel are controversial or personal since they feel they'll be challenged or threatened for it. Even if those threats are completely bunk and amount to nothing but trolling, the chilling effect on discourse is still there.
  • dfxm12 13y ago
    If discourse is the problem, what's wrong with some sort of HN/Slashdot/Reddit-like crowd sourced moderation? That's the way to solve that issue.
    • showerst 13y ago
      That might work for a very small community, but past a certain size it fails. Even reddit has had a large number of times that doxxing or threat's 'slipped through', not to mention things like the white supremacist subreddit that encouraged it.
    • Karunamon 13y ago
      Once the post is there, the damage is done. It'll stay in its position for a while before being modded to invisibility. If it makes our hypothetical user think twice before posting, game's already over. And if using a threaded system like HN,/.,Reddit, etc, if the threatening post is the only response to a comment, downmodding it doesn't accomplish anything.
• showerst 13y ago
  That's absolutely, categorically untrue. If you received a death threat on hacker news that listed your full name, and your kids' school addresses, wouldn't that give you a panic attack? I'd call that harm without a doubt.