
Ask HN: Who are all these mean people and why are we tolerating them here? - jasonkester
I made the terrible blunder of opening the comments on this story this morning:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=6742514<p>Yikes.  Is this even the same website where a supportive community of entrepreneurs and tech folk would offer one another helpful advice?  How did we go from that to this hateful, mean group of people shouting insults and personal threats at each other?<p>I wish there were a button that somebody could press to hellban ever single user in an entire thread.  Seeding a few honeypot stories like the one I linked and simply banning anybody who stooped to wallow in them would surely do this place some good.<p>Anybody else have any suggestions for a perhaps less heavy handed solution?
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petercooper
I think this is what happens when you mix current affairs and politics with a
partially anonymous, virtual discussion system. These topics are incredibly
emotive even amongst the most rational of agents. Discussions about pure tech,
running a business, hacking (in the non-geopolitical sense), investment, etc.
(i.e. what HN focused on pre-2009ish) continue to be quite productive here.

(I'm _not_ saying current affairs and politics aren't worth discussing, but
they're worth discussing in better venues that provide appropriate features
for participants. What we're seeing here is the equivalent of discussing high
end fashion in a haberdashery forum.)

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steveplace
First, the vitriol here can be incredibly helpful here. If HN commentors hate
a business idea or a company that is going public or talks about how there is
a bubble in something, it is a great tell that the concept or trend will work.

What I want is a "no politics" button. Those that want to discuss politics,
social issues, wikileaks, SOPA, Stratfor should have these discussions, but I
don't want to hear them.

Also maybe an overlay script similar to Reddit Enhancement Suite where you can
block specific users and those with brand new accounts.

When a forum becomes succesful, the signal/noise degrades. The "how to fix it"
post gets floated here once every quarter, so I don't know how much
improvement can be had.

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pyalot2
Maybe people who swoop in on this meta thread including poster should be
hellbanned?

Ah, right, righteousness only applies to others.

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throwaway2048
please dont post meta threads, they don't really help anything except a stir
up more flame wars.

