

Ask HN: Happy in the Hacker News Filter Bubble? - eevilspock

I get that there is a need to moderate what gets posted on this website, especially things that aren&#x27;t relevant to this community. But aren&#x27;t moral questions about the impacts of Silicon Valleys business models on the local community as well as global society just as important if not more so than &quot;Alcatel-Lucent sets record of 10 Gbps over traditional copper telephone lines&quot; and &quot;Show HN: Sysadmin Casts – simple bite-sized sysadmin screencasts&quot;?<p>If so, then why does legitimate discussion of the New Yorker&#x27;s &quot;The Tech Industry vs. San Francisco&quot;[1] get shut down? Will this post itself get killed?<p><i>&quot;It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.&quot;</i> -- Upton Sinclair.  I&#x27;ve been repeating this quote a lot lately, but only because it is spot on.<p>-<p>[1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=8013773
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brudgers
There's an error in your premise. The discussion on the article was not
legitimate on HN.

The questions are important. The problem is that the discussions on HN make -
in the words of Spolsky - the internet worse. It makes the internet worse
because it makes HN worse. And it makes HN worse because it makes HN look like
the rest of the internet.

Don't misunderstand me. I have opinions and ideas about solutions and would
love to discuss the issue thoughtfully on HN. But the reality is that it isn't
going to happen. That thread is a big ball of asshattery and there are many
other places on the internet where I can have more fun being an asshat when I
am so inclined.

~~~
eevilspock
Would love to hear your opinions and ideas about solutions.

 _> But the reality is that it isn't going to happen._

Self-fulfilling prophesy? Do we just give up on the web as a medium of
discourse?

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brudgers
Solution to competing interests in San Francisco is political. To holding
discussions where "Upton Sinclare questions your integrity" is acceptable
means taking it down the road.

The tone of the discussion does not meet the standards of HN's community. It
is no more appropriate here than the topic itself is appropriate for
StackOverflow.

The issue isn't discourse, it's civil discourse and the discussion was not
producing it nor was it likely to. There are sites where that's not a problem.
Indeed, anyone who feels strongly about having that type of discussion can
start their own site.

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wglb
Possibly was flagged by users. I find myself flagging stories that are going
to lead to uninteresting or contentious discussion. And the first two comments
prove this out.

Many of the low-ranking posts and flagged posts are a result of user action,
not moderator intervention.

~~~
krapp
It might be useful for killed threads to indicate whether they were killed by
users or mods, so there's feedback as to whether the community or the staff
were the ones taking issue with the content.

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vasilipupkin
you start by saying you get the need to moderate and then ask why something
gets moderated :) sorry, couldn't resist

