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Although a lot of people obviously disagree, I believe this should not be on HN. Both the examples raised in the article and the subject matter itself is bringi
by Udo 12y ago
Although a lot of people obviously disagree, I believe this should not be on HN. Both the examples raised in the article and the subject matter itself is bringing out the worst in the members of this community, for no good reason.
Blanket statements all around, personal attacks, strawmen galore, just-so anecdotes as moral fables, and for what? The kind of petty political polemics inevitably attracted by the topic do nothing to make HN a more interesting or pleasant forum.
To quote the submission guidelines:
Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're
evidence of some interesting new phenomenon.
It's hard to argue that the article somehow qualifies as describing an interesting or new phenomenon. It's a political opinion piece. (I'm not an American, so I like to think this view is non-partisan.)
- xtrumanx 12y agoLet's face it; the submissions guidelines are a joke due to the first line: > On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. No matter the topic, anyone can bring up that line and effectively ends any question that the topic is fit for HN by claiming that they find it interesting.
- Udo 12y agoEverything becomes a joke if you disrespect it enough. You have to make a conscious decision to add value instead of subtracting it.
- dang 12y agoCan't agree with you there. The guidelines make it clear that "interesting" means intellectually interesting. That excludes many other kinds of interesting, like celebrity gossip and more-heat-than-light politics. The criteria may not be algorithmic but they're not arbitrary either.
- dang 12y agoI've glanced through this thread and it doesn't seem nearly as bad as you say. In particular, I didn't see any personal attacks. If there are some, please email hn@ycombinator.com with links.