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Hacker News Guidelines

(news.ycombinator.com)
446 points tonmoy | 9 comments | 24 Aug 23 16:25 UTC | HN request time: 1.428s | source | bottom
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yjftsjthsd-h ◴[24 Aug 23 17:09 UTC] No.37251581[source]▶
The one thing I wish was added - either in the guidelines or as a change to the actual web UI - was replying to a comment that you're downvoting; it's frustrating both to have one's own comments downvoted without explanation, and to come across a comment that's grey without obvious reason (Was it factually incorrect? Endorsing an unpopular idea? It's not always obvious).

(I'm not saying HN should do exactly the same thing, but one example is Slashdot's system where a comment can get downvoted in a way that tags it specifically as trolling/offtopic/whatever - https://slashdot.org/faq/mod-metamod.shtml seems to describe it alright)

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jedberg ◴[24 Aug 23 17:14 UTC] No.37251672[source]▶
It's an interesting idea, but you'd end up with a situation where the worse the comment, the more discussion it generates due to the forced replies, which is sort of the opposite of what you want.
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arfafaerhgaq5[dead post] ◴[24 Aug 23 17:23 UTC] No.37251821[source]▶
[flagged]
TX81Z ◴[24 Aug 23 17:28 UTC] No.37251883[source]▶
In the market of ideas you’re failing, and that’s the signal you’re getting.

It sounds like you don’t care to adjust to “the crowd”, which is fine, but then you have to deal with the consequences.

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1. NoMoreNicksLeft ◴[24 Aug 23 18:05 UTC] No.37252451[source]▶
This is not only a "market of ideas", but a virtual world. And in the sense that it is a virtual world, you're also telling him "you can't exist here".

Which is a pretty shitty thing to say regardless, but when the real world withers away from us a little more every year, it starts to become monstrous.

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2. sanderjd ◴[24 Aug 23 18:17 UTC] No.37252600[source]▶
Where does "you can't exist here" come from? I don't think it's common for people who just get downvotes frequently (not flags, but just downvotes) to get kicked off the site (or out of the "virtual world", if you prefer).
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3. throw16180339 ◴[24 Aug 23 18:32 UTC] No.37252809[source]▶
Many Reddit subreddits use AutoModerator to automatically remove comments by users with substantial negative karma, e.g. -49 or lower. There are definitely false positives, but this policy removes a lot of drive-by troll comments.
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4. sanderjd ◴[24 Aug 23 18:51 UTC] No.37253023{3}[source]▶
This is the second time recently that I have been participating in a thread about moderation on HN and people have responded with comments talking about moderation on reddit...

I don't get it. We're not talking about reddit here, we're talking about HN.

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5. compiler-guy ◴[24 Aug 23 19:06 UTC] No.37253189[source]▶
People who don’t follow a social situation’s rules and norms don’t get invited back. It’s true of parties, shopping centers, and Hacker News. I don’t think that’s a problem.
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6. NoMoreNicksLeft ◴[24 Aug 23 20:48 UTC] No.37254350{4}[source]▶
Moderation is moderation. Don't pretend that it is significantly different from place to place.

I mean, I guess we can just talk about HN if you want. Yay, circumstances were such that HN moderation isn't as shitty as reddit, and may even remain that way for the lifespan of the site. How long is that anyway? Will HN be around 30 years from now? 5? It's so much smaller, that how many unlucky heart attacks or misfortunately early deaths would derail it? Is that a higher-than-single-digit number?

So, any discussion of purely HN moderation (besides those asking for input on policy adjustments) aren't talking about anything long term and pointlessly self-congratulatory.

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7. NoMoreNicksLeft ◴[24 Aug 23 20:53 UTC] No.37254401[source]▶
Well, when you put it that way...

Of course, if we alter your metaphor only ever so slightly, then you don't need an invitation to the public square, the town council meeting, or the bus stop bench.

And internet forums have certainly been happy to take the place of those things when it suits them, but without the inclusivity they require. They want the benefits of being those things, without the tradeoffs. We see no effort being made for them to not be those things.

I suspect a strong correlation between those who see no reason to be concerned by that, and HOA members who sneak out at 5:45am to measure your front lawn's grass with rulers.

8. lliamander ◴[24 Aug 23 21:50 UTC] No.37255004[source]▶
> you're also telling him "you can't exist here".

No, we are saying his behavior is unacceptable, and that if he wishes to participate in this community he will need to conform to those standards.

It is not a mercy to allow bad behavior in order to be more "welcoming".

What if this were an in-person community, and the above commenter had a problem with personal space and non-consenual touching? Not only are you driving everyone else away, but you are also risking legal consequences (or worse).

The way to help such people is have firm boundaries and clear rules. If the above commenter had any question about what constituted an acceptable comment, he could refer to the HN guidelines which the subject of this very thread.

9. sanderjd ◴[24 Aug 23 23:53 UTC] No.37256067{5}[source]▶
> Moderation is moderation.

No, moderation varies wildly from place to place. As do the rules and guidelines that the moderation is driven by. Each community has to figure this out for itself.

It is, really and truly, ridiculous, to bring up how moderation works on reddit, when discussing moderation on HN. It's an entirely different group of human beings working from an entirely different set of guidelines using an entirely different set of tools. It's just a total non sequitur.

> I mean, I guess we can just talk about HN if you want.

This whole discussion is about HN! We're discussing a link to the HN guidelines! Like, what made you think we're in any way talking about something else?

What in the world are you even talking about with the rest of this? It just seems entirely unrelated to the topic.