While you are there, go through dang’s comments timeline https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dang
Moderating something like HN is a very hard job. Gratitude .
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Moderating something like HN is a very hard job. Gratitude .
EDIT: unfortunately I cannot defend my point in the comments, as I am now rate limited :)
EDIT 2: /u/Dylan16807 yes I'm seeing that. When I try and post it says "you are posting too quickly, please slow down"
I think shadowbanning is a bit unethical as it technically involves lying, but afaik HN doesn't do such things.
And ultimately, "freedom of speech" refers to the government silencing speech, not private companies/private websites. We are all guests here, and if someone isn't upholding the standards the people who run this website want people to uphold, then they're free to do whatever they want.
If you hold this opinion then you can never say water, food, shelter, internet, etc. are human rights either.
As for shadowbanning being a key tool in managing a community - In HN's case, I imagine any shadowbanning system could be easily defeated, as a malicious actor could create a new account for every comment.
> As for shadowbanning being a key tool in managing a community - In HN's case, I imagine any shadowbanning system could be easily defeated, as a malicious actor could create a new account for every comment.
New accounts have no history and no score, so they fit into the community in a (justifiably) low-reputation place. While you can do that, you'll have an army of "greentext" accounts and the community tends to downsample their opinions.