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What can I say about sexism in tech without getting shadowbanned?
I finally figured out my previous account has been shadowbanned for some time. I cannot begin to fathom why. The last comment that appears on the account's public profile was a comment commiserating with the parent comment about the high level of sexism in that thread (the submission was about sexual harassment at a tech conference). The first comment that only appears when I am logged in is a request that someone refrain from referring to text in languages that use non-Latin characters as "moon runes".
I have read the guidelines, and had prior to creating that account. It is obvious to me that some interpretations of the guidelines would justify banning me - if all mentions of sexism or other issues of inclusiveness constitute "flame war bait", then of course my comments would fall into that category. It seems to me that banning all such comments is counterproductive, but I can't figure out a narrower reading that would explain why I was banned. Neither comment was especially rude or sarcastic, at least no moreso than what I frequently see in threads here, and I feel both comments contributed to the discussion. Why was I banned, and more generally, what is the difference between an acceptable and an unacceptable comment on this community's very real problems with inclusiveness?
- DenisM 13y agoYou're likely over-thinking it - mistakes happen is all. Email pg to get unbanned.
- hackinthebochs 13y agoI'm no expert on the rules around here, but from what I've gathered, accounts past a certain threshold of negative karma are automatically shadowbanned. There's no conspiracy nor did you piss off the wrong mod for saying the wrong thing about sexism. Your only mistake was having your first set of comments be on a contentious subject, which increases the risk of downvotes and getting shadowbanned.
- elevenpercent 13y agoThanks for the reply. The number that appears in parentheses next to my username is positive - does that preclude that explanation, or might I still have reached some negative karma threshold?
- hackinthebochs 13y agoYeah, I think the fact that your total karma is positive does preclude my idea here. Someone else would have to chime in on your case specifically. I have seen people get shadowbanned by being new accounts and having their first comment downvoted, this probably doesn't apply to your case though.
- goldenkey 13y agoI'm actually kind of curious to see the "moon rune" comment chain mentioned. Someone is actually calling non-latin languages "moon runes"? Seems humorously innocent if anything at all.
- elevenpercent 13y agoHere's the comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4775440 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4775440 The part I was responding to: >If you need to worry about junk like accented characters or moon runes (Chinese/Japanese/Korean characters), it means you're big enough to afford to hire someone specifically to address the problem. My response, which is only visible to me: > > moon runes (Chinese/Japanese/Korean characters) > Really? You can make your economic point without making fun of several of the world's most commonly spoken languages and the people who speak them
- DanBC 13y agoThreads about sexism on HN are toxic. No useful discussion ever happens in them. Flagging them is the only useful option. Posting this in a thread full of those toxic people is going to get you heavily downvoted: "I fucking hate how openly misogynistic HN is. I don't even want to bother sifting through this shit anymore. s/women/black people/g s/attending/going to elite, white-only colleges/g"
- elevenpercent 13y agoI don't think that's an acceptable solution. Sexism in tech is real. Sexism on Hacker News is real. It's a problem that matters and really affects people's lives. Banning discussion is tantamount to saying the status quo is acceptable. I can see how that comment would have been considered in violation of the guidelines for tone reasons. I'd like to point out that in context, the last line was a substantive response to the comment I was replying to, but I can understand why the first part could reasonably have been disallowed. I wouldn't have made this thread if I thought I had been banned for that comment. But comments after that comment are still visible, and I don't see anything wrong with the comments immediately before or after my banning. That's what concerns me.