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As you know, I didn't kill those posts because they're about a YC company. I killed them because HN is a news site, not a support forum for YC companies. And

by pg 13y ago

As you know, I didn't kill those posts because they're about a YC company. I killed them because HN is a news site, not a support forum for YC companies. And the reason we don't want that sort of post is not to conceal problems with YC cos, but because (as we saw) this sort of indignation-inducing fluff is so easy to upvote that it will take over a site if you allow it. It is a super lame move to try to hijack a thread about a newly launched startup to get attention for some unrelated grievance. You wouldn't like if it someone did that to you.

swombat 13y ago
I find myself agreeing with you on this particular case, though I do feel there's a serious problem with HN's moderation. Perhaps an effort to make the (manual AND automatic) moderation processes more transparent would go a long way towards avoiding this situation where people feel they're fighting with a faceless machine and so get upset. There are far too many situations where posts go up and down as if by magic, and no one can figure out why. How would you feel if someone did that to you?
jacquesm 13y ago
Your first argument would hold more water if you consistently did this, rather than willy-nilly as observed so far. As for hijacking this thread, there was another thread that was perfectly suited for the purpose, you killed it, besides you've removed my ability to post so I had this left as a means of last resort. Think of it as a hack, this is 'hacker news' after all, isn't it?
- ynniv 13y ago
  you've removed my ability to post HN seem to have a lot of targeted moderation "features" these days. Years ago I seem to have lost my ability to flag articles, which as far as I can tell comes from flagging things that the mods don't think should be flagged. As for the original killed threads, I can't see what makes the Ask HN post different from a blog post with the same content that's been submitted. The guidelines say to not post what could have been emailed, but the poster was asking the HN community for advice and not asking the startup anything, so the post was not killed strictly per HN guidelines. My 2¢ is that moderation is damaging the community more than submissions and comments.
- tptacek 13y ago
  The hack you just described has a name. It's called "trolling".
  - napoleond 13y ago
    It's called "trolling". Not really. Or rather, the question of whether or not it was trolling is the subject of [current] debate. (It depends on whether it was off-topic or not--clearly 'pg thinks it was, and some people think that since he is the owner/creator/BDFL he is right, but lots of other intelligent people disagree, which is the whole reason this thread exists. I'm not really sure it matters, but calling 'jaquesm a troll is pretty strong.)

by pg 13y ago

swombat 13y ago

I find myself agreeing with you on this particular case, though I do feel there's a serious problem with HN's moderation. Perhaps an effort to make the (manual AND automatic) moderation processes more transparent would go a long way towards avoiding this situation where people feel they're fighting with a faceless machine and so get upset. There are far too many situations where posts go up and down as if by magic, and no one can figure out why. How would you feel if someone did that to you?

jacquesm 13y ago

Your first argument would hold more water if you consistently did this, rather than willy-nilly as observed so far. As for hijacking this thread, there was another thread that was perfectly suited for the purpose, you killed it, besides you've removed my ability to post so I had this left as a means of last resort. Think of it as a hack, this is 'hacker news' after all, isn't it?

ynniv 13y ago
you've removed my ability to post HN seem to have a lot of targeted moderation "features" these days. Years ago I seem to have lost my ability to flag articles, which as far as I can tell comes from flagging things that the mods don't think should be flagged. As for the original killed threads, I can't see what makes the Ask HN post different from a blog post with the same content that's been submitted. The guidelines say to not post what could have been emailed, but the poster was asking the HN community for advice and not asking the startup anything, so the post was not killed strictly per HN guidelines. My 2¢ is that moderation is damaging the community more than submissions and comments.
tptacek 13y ago
The hack you just described has a name. It's called "trolling".
- napoleond 13y ago
  It's called "trolling". Not really. Or rather, the question of whether or not it was trolling is the subject of [current] debate. (It depends on whether it was off-topic or not--clearly 'pg thinks it was, and some people think that since he is the owner/creator/BDFL he is right, but lots of other intelligent people disagree, which is the whole reason this thread exists. I'm not really sure it matters, but calling 'jaquesm a troll is pretty strong.)