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I frequently see extremely interesting posts vanish from the front page. Maybe there should be a section on HN where we can review 'banned' posts.

DanBC 11y ago
Do you have any examples?
- darkmighty 11y ago
  There was an interesting article a while ago on weird beliefs of some intelligent people. It really shows why 'intelligence' is a limited world and we shouldn't try mirroring beliefs of people (outside their area of expertise) because they're "smart". Great examples are Gödels beliefs of ghosts and paranormal activity; some older Nobel laureates turned to 'weird' (for the lack of a better word) ideas at some point in time; etc. Not cited in the article, Gödel also believed to have found a logical proof of the existence of God: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontological_argument#Kurt_G.C3.B6del http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontological_argument#Kurt_G.C3..... People got upset that religions got included it. I can understand the disagreement, but I can't understand the need to censor the discussion. Whether you believe it or not, it shouldn't be a stretch to concede that religion is weird, in some sense. It's completely outside our usual phenomena, and it's an arbitrary explanation for several questions, or maybe it's a relief. But it's as strange as it is interesting that so many people hold those beliefs. The original discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9525645 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9525645
  - chris_wot 11y ago
    That was a ridiculous and divisive article. I'm not surprised it was penalised - controversial stories like this attract flamers and trolls - and that killed K5.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
lnanek2 11y ago
You used to be able to set your preferences to see dead ones and browse sections like new, but now they've unlinked them, so there is no way to check any more. It's sad because the moderators around here tend to do a really terrible job, butchering titles to be less informative and other harmful actions, and this just makes them even less accountable.
- jaredsohn 11y ago
  Used to? I can configure my account to see dead comments (and have), maybe this is different for newer accounts (but I've never heard this)? Also, I can see the new section when I browse incognito, so I'm not seeing what I think you are describing. Also, moderation has become a lot more transparent over the last year or so (see https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dang https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dang) and I cannot think of a site offhand that does a better job of this. Edit: My comments about moderation are related to the parent statement about how Hacker News often indicates why thread contents (such as the title) have changed.
  - jsmthrowaway 11y ago
    Nothing against HN, but you must not visit a lot of sites if you can't name one site that moderates better than HN. Lest we forget, there are several people who have been hellbanned for multiple years without any clue. They waste a significant portion of their life talking to nobody because the person who developed the site felt passive aggressive was better than just banning someone outright and preventing them from rejoining. With incognito mode checking if you're hellbanned is a five second operation, yet dang hasn't replaced that aspect of HN despite its futility and childishness. Most of those bans I've seen have been enough to make me cock an eyebrow, as well. When you get banned from a subreddit you are told, by the system, via private message. Reddit has user-level shadowbanning as well, but I've only ever seen it used when it was warranted, like doxxing -- here, some of the hellbanned comment histories mystify me. Reddit certainly has its own share of weirdness but in my opinion, /r/askscience (to use one example) has absolutely incredible moderation that makes HN pale in comparison.
- DanBC 11y ago

DanBC 11y ago

Do you have any examples?

darkmighty 11y ago
There was an interesting article a while ago on weird beliefs of some intelligent people. It really shows why 'intelligence' is a limited world and we shouldn't try mirroring beliefs of people (outside their area of expertise) because they're "smart". Great examples are Gödels beliefs of ghosts and paranormal activity; some older Nobel laureates turned to 'weird' (for the lack of a better word) ideas at some point in time; etc. Not cited in the article, Gödel also believed to have found a logical proof of the existence of God: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontological_argument#Kurt_G.C3.B6del http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontological_argument#Kurt_G.C3..... People got upset that religions got included it. I can understand the disagreement, but I can't understand the need to censor the discussion. Whether you believe it or not, it shouldn't be a stretch to concede that religion is weird, in some sense. It's completely outside our usual phenomena, and it's an arbitrary explanation for several questions, or maybe it's a relief. But it's as strange as it is interesting that so many people hold those beliefs. The original discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9525645 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9525645
- chris_wot 11y ago
  That was a ridiculous and divisive article. I'm not surprised it was penalised - controversial stories like this attract flamers and trolls - and that killed K5.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

lnanek2 11y ago

You used to be able to set your preferences to see dead ones and browse sections like new, but now they've unlinked them, so there is no way to check any more. It's sad because the moderators around here tend to do a really terrible job, butchering titles to be less informative and other harmful actions, and this just makes them even less accountable.

jaredsohn 11y ago
Used to? I can configure my account to see dead comments (and have), maybe this is different for newer accounts (but I've never heard this)? Also, I can see the new section when I browse incognito, so I'm not seeing what I think you are describing. Also, moderation has become a lot more transparent over the last year or so (see https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dang https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dang) and I cannot think of a site offhand that does a better job of this. Edit: My comments about moderation are related to the parent statement about how Hacker News often indicates why thread contents (such as the title) have changed.
- jsmthrowaway 11y ago
  Nothing against HN, but you must not visit a lot of sites if you can't name one site that moderates better than HN. Lest we forget, there are several people who have been hellbanned for multiple years without any clue. They waste a significant portion of their life talking to nobody because the person who developed the site felt passive aggressive was better than just banning someone outright and preventing them from rejoining. With incognito mode checking if you're hellbanned is a five second operation, yet dang hasn't replaced that aspect of HN despite its futility and childishness. Most of those bans I've seen have been enough to make me cock an eyebrow, as well. When you get banned from a subreddit you are told, by the system, via private message. Reddit has user-level shadowbanning as well, but I've only ever seen it used when it was warranted, like doxxing -- here, some of the hellbanned comment histories mystify me. Reddit certainly has its own share of weirdness but in my opinion, /r/askscience (to use one example) has absolutely incredible moderation that makes HN pale in comparison.
DanBC 11y ago