
Thank you to dang and sctb - sama
Dan and Scott do an incredible amount of work behind the scenes to make Hacker News what it is. I have never met two more thoughtful community stewards. They usually get more hate than thanks, which they deal with cheerfully. This community means a lot to a lot of people.<p>So today I wanted to say thanks, on behalf of the HN community.
======
tomcam
They have both chastised me for "funny" (to me) or intemperate comments.
Sometimes I agree, sometimes I don't. But I have never, never felt that they
had anything but the interest of the HN community as a whole.

I have never, ever seen any online community moderated better or even remotely
close to as well as HN.

I am deeply thankful for HN. It is a surprisingly important part of my life,
almost solely because of them.

~~~
nolok
Generally very much enjoy the moderation here (enough liberty to let side
things slide when needed, enough control that it remains of good quality), but
in terms of community that is made to produce quality content through
efficient moderation, the benevolent dictators of askhistorians are still far
ahead of anything else though. The content of that sub would be worth paying a
subscription for.

~~~
exolymph
/r/AskHistorians is a very particular type of community. It's super
interesting and I'm glad it exists, but if no other types of communities
existed I would be very sad.

------
cyberferret
dang has to be one of the most patient and civil mods I've ever come across on
an internet forum of any kind. I try and mimic his style on assets that I have
mod duties on.

------
jvns
as someone whose writing ends up on here from time to time, I really
appreciate the HN mods' work to keep discussion on topic & constructive. It's
obviously a tough job and every time I've emailed them with a concern they've
been very helpful.

~~~
dboon
And as an aside, I absolutely love your writing.

------
boulos
Yes, thanks! The level of conversation here is unmatched. The set of things
Dan and Scott have done to improve upon even the historical baseline are
amazing (e.g., resubmit to front page for good submissions that got missed).
HN is where I’ve turned for years for honest discussion, and thanks to our
moderators I expect it will be for years to come.

------
sudosteph
dang really is a great moderator. He's got a good eye for spotting problematic
behavior, and a level head for dealing with it. He's set me straight in the
past, and I'm glad he did. The way he remains both professional and
empathetic, even when dealing with sensitive users and topics, really exudes
the best of hacker news ethos. Here's to you, dang!

------
anotherevan
One feature on HN that was implemented a while ago now, but often crosses my
mind to give thanks for is being able to collapse and expand comment threads.
The fact that the site remembers them across page reloads is also a nice and
useful touch.

So thanks to those responsible.

~~~
peterkelly
The implementation is quite interesting :)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/hn.js](https://news.ycombinator.com/hn.js)

------
Insanity
Their nicks don't ring a bell with me, and I've been here for ~2 years.

Which probably means that what they're doing is a good thing though, not a lot
of flame wars going on! (Or alternatively, I just stay away from articles that
might cause need for more moderation).

But thanks! Good mods are crucial for a place like this

~~~
slededit
You probably don't have showdead enabled. Unlike other places bans come with
an explanation - so I see them fairly often following flagged posts.

~~~
classichasclass
Good idea, I should turn that on! Thanks for the suggestion.

------
tinkerteller
While I know how hard these people work, I really cannot support your
enthusiasm. The users are often banned at slightest opportunities and they are
not even informed what they did wrong or the fact that they _just_ got banned.
They would just get dreaded “your are posting too fast” error and all their
future posts and comments are automatically de-ranked forever with no recourse
or appeal to these higher powers. I felt this was very similar to being placed
on no-fly list which we as hacker community deride so much as infallible
authoritarianism.

As HN community is more and more becoming group think (watch how this post
will be downvoted) and laying these extra layers of super powers punishing
anyone ad hock doesn’t help. In few posts when I wrote non-popular opinion
very respectfully these folks expressed their displeasure. Mods should NEVER
do that.

The sign of such required moderators is indicator of how broken the algorithms
driving HN. Instead of fixing these fundamental tech issues, the powers behind
HN have doubled down on exercising heavy handed dictatorships. The least they
could have done but never have bothered is to at least tell people they punish
what they did wrong, how do they fix it and get back in community. The best
they could have done would b ego open source HN and have honest discussions
about various issues we have as community so more brain power is available to
solve these issues. That’s the hacker way.

Update: Great! Group thinkers are already getting busy at casting downvotes.

~~~
claudiawerner
>They would just get dreaded “your are posting too fast” error and all their
future posts and comments are automatically de-ranked forever with no recourse
or appeal to these higher powers.

Hear hear. This is by far the worst part of HN. It makes me very annoyed, more
than any discussion on this site has, to see that I'm posting too fast... By
having a discussion or responding to multiple people. What a horrible
restriction.

HN is open source and you can see how they put a flag on your account if they
think you argue too much.

------
NicoJuicy
Thank you Dan and Scott!

I appreciate the understanding, i once added a "post to HN" button to my RSS
feed service and i posted too much..

I received a ban and only afterwards it seemed i was posting too much, but
explained the situation and was met with understanding. Now, i'm much more
considerate.

Thanks for the human moderation and keeping the quality on HN as good as
possible.

------
miles
I don't always agree with their moderation decisions, but am ever grateful for
their fine work in maintaining the best discussion board on the Internet.
Deepest thanks to you guys!

------
codyb
Hackernews and freenode are the best tech communities I've come across. Don't
know where I'd be without the tremendous generosity of the persons in these
communities. Currently interviewing with multiple companies from the who's
hiring thread.

And to be on topic, I'm not as familiar with sctb, but Dan's comments have
always been nothing but constructive. They're never disparaging, they seem
primarily to be nudges towards decent behavior. Thank you Dan!

I'll keep an eye out for you Scott ;-).

Cheers all, and happy Thanksgiving to everyone celebrating today.

------
nickpsecurity
Although Ive seen questionable decisions occasionally, over 99% of what Ive
seen with showdead on was a tremendous volume of useless or negative comments
HN is better of without. That's on top of work to stop things like vote
manipulations. dang also intervened to calm my ass down in some scruffles.
Agreeing or disagreeing, he always respinded to my questions or gripes in
email with thoughtful points.

So, thanks Dan and Scott for all the good work you do keeping the comment
sections higher quality than most of the Internet. :)

------
coldtea
Dang has done a very good job I must say -- haven't noticed sctb, which means
he did a good job as well, not drawing attention to the moderation (which is
what happens when it's done badly).

~~~
gpvos
sctb is a bit newer (since about a year or so?).

~~~
JamesBarney
4+ years actually :)

------
Kinnard
And for Arc too!

[http://arclanguage.org/forum](http://arclanguage.org/forum)

Thanks Dan + Scott!

------
DonHopkins
As a tribute to Dang, whose name you say when you make a mistake, here are
some of my favorite Far Side cartoons:

Some Weirdo:
[https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f8/74/40/f8744035e15d69eb8fd4c70de...](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/f8/74/40/f8744035e15d69eb8fd4c70dea17c2e0.jpg)

Monster Jobs:
[https://i.pinimg.com/564x/21/81/3e/21813e975f2aa35259246eeca...](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/21/81/3e/21813e975f2aa35259246eecad69aee6.jpg)

Vultures:
[https://i.pinimg.com/564x/e4/d2/f3/e4d2f3b47c3de90e1a084d94a...](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/e4/d2/f3/e4d2f3b47c3de90e1a084d94ab24daa4.jpg)

Construction Birds at Lunch:
[https://i.pinimg.com/564x/3b/c5/fd/3bc5fd323e791b6879529e6a5...](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/3b/c5/fd/3bc5fd323e791b6879529e6a5ab12dac.jpg)

Blizard's A-Comin':
[https://i.pinimg.com/736x/61/f9/bb/61f9bb66cc0e79f06246876ba...](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/61/f9/bb/61f9bb66cc0e79f06246876ba2f4f512
--christmas-humor-merry-christmas.jpg)

The Creeps:
[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5a/1c/5e/5a1c5ef2e9ab19d27970...](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5a/1c/5e/5a1c5ef2e9ab19d279704fc620b74d7f.jpg)

Superman In His Later Years:
[https://i.pinimg.com/564x/86/95/a7/8695a7c1cfffb69bc3b92c980...](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/86/95/a7/8695a7c1cfffb69bc3b92c980ad7b185.jpg)

Before Paper and Scissors:
[https://i.pinimg.com/564x/a4/cf/ab/a4cfabe6847546e52343d4d15...](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/a4/cf/ab/a4cfabe6847546e52343d4d1595ae69b.jpg)

Sorry, Buddy:
[https://i.pinimg.com/564x/49/6b/3a/496b3a234ddeca894887b249e...](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/49/6b/3a/496b3a234ddeca894887b249e6f2cadd.jpg)

Nerd! ...:
[https://i.pinimg.com/564x/c9/08/a0/c908a02a8dfa42db9973f743b...](https://i.pinimg.com/564x/c9/08/a0/c908a02a8dfa42db9973f743b761777f.jpg)

The Thanksgiving themed one that I googled and googled and googled for but
couldn't find, which was taped to my mom's refrigerator, was the disappointed
bird standing in front of the open refrigerator, lamenting: "Dang, somebody
ate the middle out of the daddy longlegs!"

~~~
itronitron
i wonder if the Monster Jobs cartoon was the impetus for Monster.com

~~~
DonHopkins
I just hope I wasn't the inspiration for the "Some Weirdo" one.

------
amingilani
Thanks guys. And — despite the fact that every time I say the phrase on HN I
get downvoted to hell — I'm going to say it: not all heroes wear capes ;)

~~~
sudosteph
Wait, you're telling me these guys don't have capes yet? I'm sensing some
great gift ideas for the YC secret-santa this year.

------
thatha7777
Dan and Scott, thank you for thoughtful moderation, patches, and your cheerful
goodwill.

------
resters
What we don’t see is all the goodwill and interesting discussion that is
suppressed by the mods.

And fwiw it’s pretty disgusting that people feel the need to kiss up to them
all the time on HN, but it’s like supplicating before anyone with power, it’s
done for a reason and it’s an ugly aspect of humanity.

Countless times I’ve seen interesting submissions buried, either by some
behind-the-scenes process or via a title change that reverts to the authors
boring or misleading title.

There are surely some griefers who need to be policed, but the HN mods are
accountable to nobody and there is no public record of their actions which
might reveal improprieties or abuse of the trust placed in them by pg and the
community.

So I am thankful for any good intentions they may have, but sadly the evidence
suggests that at least one of them is a bully who abuses the authoritarian
power and lack of accountability.

I’m not arguing that moderation isn’t necessary, just that unaccountable and
non-transparent moderation decisions are a recipe for corruption and abuse of
power.

Basically, HN is run like Singapore. It’s very tidy but there is an
authoritarian dimension that is unsettling. HN thrives when the mods are busy
with other things and don’t have time to taze every so called flame war and
“fix” every title.

------
marmshallow
This is by far my favorite pocket of the internet and much thanks goes to the
team that keeps the culture alive and well!

------
bachmeier
You generally only hear the complaints, but I think most of us agree that the
community is much better because of them.

------
diegoperini
Thank you guys! Your nicknames look like some UNIXy command line tools. :P

------
cgh
dang has great taste in fiction. I enjoyed our brief discussion of character
names in Pynchon and Peake.

Here's why I remember this: no one I know in real life reads fiction. I know
plenty of people who read non-fiction (political stuff mostly), but no one in
my circle takes the time to just sit back on a rainy Saturday and read
something someone else made up. Even my wife is reading Bob Woodward's "Fear",
and we aren't even American. So yeah, that little interaction made my day.

~~~
clairity
yay pynchon! i buy trystero coffee just for the name (you have to be in the
know to find it (but it's not that hard)).

~~~
cgh
Ha, that is excellent. I once thought that Pierce Inverarity would be a great
name for a beer. It would be peak hipster pretentiousness: a brewery whose
beers were named for Pynchon characters. Unfortunately, they'd probably all be
IPAs.

------
kregasaurusrex
Promoting quality discussion and letting people share their experiences in a
professional manner makes me a daily reader of HN. Thank you for your work!

------
chris_st
Hear hear! Thanks to dang and sctb, and to everyone who keeps this site up and
running, AND to the incredibly thoughtful and interesting commenters!

------
detaro
Indeed, thank you! I'm always impressed how quick and precise they reply when
reached out to via e-mail, too.

------
bePoliteAlways
Thanks from my side. I have added only few comments but a regular visitor of
this site for years now. A friend introduced me to this forum.

I think moderators are doing an excellent job to keep this forum decent and
interesting.

Of course I also thank the people who make this forum and share interesting
information.

------
codetrotter
Thank you dang and sctb. Your effort is instrumental in keeping HN the cool
place that it is :)

------
mistersquid
Hear hear. Like so many of us here, I deeply appreciate all they do to keep
the hive humming.

------
oh_sigh
Wow, I never knew dang was named Dan. I always said it as the word dang in my
head

------
juped
I think they're good mods, but I don't think this thread is appropriate, nor
would I want to have put them in the position of deciding whether to delete it
bt making it, as the OP did.

~~~
obituary_latte
The odds of the mods deleting it seem pretty slim seeing as the author of the
post is their boss man.

The thread need not be deleted anyway. Nothing wrong with thanking some of the
people that keep the site running smoothly. Especially on a day dedicated to
giving thanks.

------
anonytrary
_waits for low quality comment and dang 's response_

------
superasn
Also thanks for being so super responsive and helpful to emails queries too.
I've gotten replies from dang in matter of minutes! Amazing how well they do
it.

------
Gatsky
Here here, you are both doing a tough job really well.

------
forapurpose
As importantly, I think they were doing a good job before and have improved.
Not every successful person makes that effort. Great work guys.

------
toomuchtodo
Thank you Dan and Scott! Your work on HN is deeply appreciated! You keep us
all civil and on topic tirelessly.

------
DonHopkins
I can't reply to them and would't want to, but the sputtering Tourettes of
accusations from disgruntled shadow banned trolls in this thread is music to
my ears -- the moderators are doing a bang-up job, and the system works!

Thank you for "forcing San Fransisco liberal social justice politics down
everyone's throat", you "west coast liberal elite echo chamber". Your mother
was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!!! ;)

------
rdiddly
Yep moderation is a thankless job, so today we ah, give thanks, as it were!

------
atdt
Thanks, Dan and Scott!

------
zitterbewegung
Yea, thanks to everyone who keeps this site rolling !

------
ptr
I’d like to express my gratitude as well.

------
tosh
kudos! moderation is a lot of work that you typically only notice when it
isn't happening. thanks a lot!

------
mturmon
Patient, smart, consistent. Thanks.

------
amasad
They're awesome -- thank you!

------
roymurdock
fantastic job, great mods. thanks for your hard work.

------
iamwil
Thank you both.

------
mxpxrocks10
same here. thanks guys!

------
black-tea
I do not post my thoughts on certain topics any more because I know I'll get
banned for it. So you can thank them for your echo chamber.

~~~
nolok
I have plenty of contrarian opinion on things, such as thinking Tesla is
massively overvalued and their autopilot a scam, or my views on apple, etc...
And while I may be down voted when posting them never ever have I feared a
ban.

Maybe to find the issue you should pay less attention to your opinion and more
to how you express it. Disagreeing with people is okay, even on the Internet
there isn't always a side that's right and one that's wrong.

~~~
hycaria
If you want an example, I have one at hand

------
choot
I don't think dang is a good mod. They've removed my ability to downvote or
make a new thread.

In fact, they remind me of Stackoverflow community.

I didn't ran into problem with sctb tho, i think he's fine. But dang, she
needs tone down her impulse of over moderating everything.

I don't agree with all their methods and opinions. Most threads which hurt
business are deranked and removed. Specially, the ones which discuss the dark
side of the startups, after all YC has to make sure no one rocks their boat.

And the ones which discuss sexual harrasment or racism in YC Startups or
Valley startups, are removed from the first page faster.

Lifestyle business threads are also removed from first page so that no
entrepreneur might imagine that something is possible without VC funding.

Pretty, sure these guys get paid for their work. I don't see why should we be
thankful afterall it's free market. If they don't like their job, someone else
will.

The purpose of this forum is to attract talent from all around the world to
silicon valley and mining the bright people who comment there for ideas for
next billion dollar startup which YC guys will fund as they got those
investors on their side.

Rest of us really don't benefit in material way other than probably a feeling
of winning an argument on internet and raising testosterone/dopamine a bit.

------
monochromatic
dang has (nicely) called me out a couple of times for making comments that
were rude or not productive. I’m glad that they’re trying to keep this place
civil.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
He called me out at least once, too. But the time he did, well, I pretty much
deserved it...

