

What can I say about sexism in tech without getting shadowbanned? - elevenpercent

I finally figured out my previous account has been shadowbanned for some time. I cannot begin to fathom why. The last comment that appears on the account&#x27;s public profile was a comment commiserating with the parent comment about the high level of sexism in that thread (the submission was about sexual harassment at a tech conference). The first comment that only appears when I am logged in is a request that someone refrain from referring to text in languages that use non-Latin characters as &quot;moon runes&quot;.<p>I have read the guidelines, and had prior to creating that account. It is obvious to me that some interpretations of the guidelines would justify banning me - if all mentions of sexism or other issues of inclusiveness constitute &quot;flame war bait&quot;, then of course my comments would fall into that category. It seems to me that banning all such comments is counterproductive, but I can&#x27;t figure out a narrower reading that would explain why I was banned. Neither comment was especially rude or sarcastic, at least no moreso than what I frequently see in threads here, and I feel both comments contributed to the discussion. Why was I banned, and more generally, what is the difference between an acceptable and an unacceptable comment on this community&#x27;s very real problems with inclusiveness?
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DanBC
Threads about sexism on HN are toxic. No useful discussion ever happens in
them. Flagging them is the only useful option.

Posting this in a thread full of those toxic people is going to get you
heavily downvoted:

"I fucking hate how openly misogynistic HN is. I don't even want to bother
sifting through this shit anymore.

s/women/black people/g s/attending/going to elite, white-only colleges/g"

~~~
elevenpercent
I don't think that's an acceptable solution. Sexism in tech is real. Sexism on
Hacker News is real. It's a problem that matters and really affects people's
lives. Banning discussion is tantamount to saying the status quo is
acceptable.

I can see how that comment would have been considered in violation of the
guidelines for tone reasons. I'd like to point out that in context, the last
line was a substantive response to the comment I was replying to, but I can
understand why the first part could reasonably have been disallowed. I
wouldn't have made this thread if I thought I had been banned for that
comment. But comments after that comment are still visible, and I don't see
anything wrong with the comments immediately before or after my banning.
That's what concerns me.

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hackinthebochs
I'm no expert on the rules around here, but from what I've gathered, accounts
past a certain threshold of negative karma are automatically shadowbanned.
There's no conspiracy nor did you piss off the wrong mod for saying the wrong
thing about sexism. Your only mistake was having your first set of comments be
on a contentious subject, which increases the risk of downvotes and getting
shadowbanned.

~~~
elevenpercent
Thanks for the reply.

The number that appears in parentheses next to my username is positive - does
that preclude that explanation, or might I still have reached some negative
karma threshold?

~~~
hackinthebochs
Yeah, I think the fact that your total karma is positive does preclude my idea
here. Someone else would have to chime in on your case specifically. I have
seen people get shadowbanned by being new accounts and having their first
comment downvoted, this probably doesn't apply to your case though.

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goldenkey
I'm actually kind of curious to see the "moon rune" comment chain mentioned.
Someone is actually calling non-latin languages "moon runes"? Seems humorously
innocent if anything at all.

~~~
elevenpercent
Here's the comment:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4775440](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4775440)

The part I was responding to:

>If you need to worry about junk like accented characters or moon runes
(Chinese/Japanese/Korean characters), it means you're big enough to afford to
hire someone specifically to address the problem.

My response, which is only visible to me:

> > moon runes (Chinese/Japanese/Korean characters)

> Really? You can make your economic point without making fun of several of
> the world's most commonly spoken languages and the people who speak them

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DenisM
You're likely over-thinking it - mistakes happen is all. Email pg to get
unbanned.

