3 ms·

I think the point is that you aren't an objective reporter of 'the implicit standards'. You are a participant in creating them. Each time someone asserts an o

by gress 13y ago

I think the point is that you aren't an objective reporter of 'the implicit standards'. You are a participant in creating them. Each time someone asserts an opinion about what the standards are in a particular case, they are working to make their view into part of the standard.

brudgers 13y ago
Hacker News is run by Y-Combinator to further YC's interests and it's not much of a conceptual stretch to think of HN as a Paul Graham side project. Now it would be a mistake to attribute all the day to day moderation to PG because there were YC alums who involved and of course now YC has charged dang as chief moderator as PG pursues things he'd rather be doing. But it's certainly a larger mistake to think that these standards stem from me - not only because IANPG or a YC alum but because the standards existed in roughly their current form when I arrived nearly four years ago. Now, I'm still here because I can generally abide by the standards. Indeed, I'm still here almost certainly because the experience HN provides as a consequence of those standards is so much better for me than the UseNet or the various fora I've actively shaped or from which I've been banned. I don't actively flag political stories off the front page, but I tend to avoid discussion threads that proceed at 100+ comments per hour because I can nearly always find something about which I can express outrage and always find something that I can call wrong. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I'm above expressing outrage or don't enjoy telling someone they're wrong or as much as the next fellow. It's that I've got a better places to do that than HN and their better both because it's part of their culture and better because my effort is likely to have more impact on the world than a disagreement about the role Rice in OIF.

3 ms·

I think the point is that you aren't an objective reporter of 'the implicit standards'. You are a participant in creating them. Each time someone asserts an o

by gress 13y ago

brudgers 13y ago
Hacker News is run by Y-Combinator to further YC's interests and it's not much of a conceptual stretch to think of HN as a Paul Graham side project. Now it would be a mistake to attribute all the day to day moderation to PG because there were YC alums who involved and of course now YC has charged dang as chief moderator as PG pursues things he'd rather be doing. But it's certainly a larger mistake to think that these standards stem from me - not only because IANPG or a YC alum but because the standards existed in roughly their current form when I arrived nearly four years ago. Now, I'm still here because I can generally abide by the standards. Indeed, I'm still here almost certainly because the experience HN provides as a consequence of those standards is so much better for me than the UseNet or the various fora I've actively shaped or from which I've been banned. I don't actively flag political stories off the front page, but I tend to avoid discussion threads that proceed at 100+ comments per hour because I can nearly always find something about which I can express outrage and always find something that I can call wrong. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I'm above expressing outrage or don't enjoy telling someone they're wrong or as much as the next fellow. It's that I've got a better places to do that than HN and their better both because it's part of their culture and better because my effort is likely to have more impact on the world than a disagreement about the role Rice in OIF.