

Ask HN: What role do political submissions play in HN? - angersock

There's a very interesting phenomenon I'm observing, and I would love some feedback from the community.<p>HN seems to be fairly divided in terms of the role of politics on the site: either we should avoid political postings as much as possible, or we should argue them relentlessly. I'm curious what the current prevailing wind is.<p>The reason I ask is that there have been two interesting developments this week: the PyCon fiasco and the vote on the upcoming internet sales tax in the US. I note that the former resulted in front-page saturation, while the latter seems to have slipped off into obscurity--especially troubling, right, because it may directly effect business for all of us online service providers.<p>So I would like to ask: when do <i>you</i>, the individual HN user, care about political issues? What would you like to see more/less of in submissions, and why?
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mindcrime
_So I would like to ask: when do you, the individual HN user, care about
political issues?_

I care about political issues a lot. So much so that I ran for Lieutenant
Governor of NC back in 2008. So much so that I'm a dues paying member of a
number of political organizations: NRA, Gun Owners of America, Second
Amendment Foundation, Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership,
Grassroots NC, and the Libertarian Party among others. But that's not what I
come to HN for.

 _What would you like to see more/less of in submissions, and why?_

When I come here, I'm mainly looking for news, stories and discussion related
to technology, startups, and - even more - the intersection of technology and
startups. General "geek" stuff like science news (Higgs Boson article, life on
Mars stuff, etc.) is also marginally interesting, but that stuff isn't what
compels me to visit here.

The "silicon valley drama" stuff is also engaging, but - to be quite honest -
it's a bit like eating fast food. Fun for a while, but probably not healthy
over the long run.

------
DanBC
Some topics (gun control; Palestine; drugs) are never going to have decent
comment threads. Everything that can be said has been said, people have
entrenched opinions, people are not going to change their minds. But, on top
of all of that, people feel very strongly that they are right and other people
are wrong.

That makes these topics intensely interesting for people taking part in the
discussion. People get drawn in. Not only do they make posts in the threads,
but they write on their blogs and submit those too. Watching borderline
flamebaiting isn't so interesting for people on the sidelines. The topics
don't use new information; the same biased data gets churned out each time.

In theory HN could do these discussions well. Very smart people with different
thinking could discuss novel potential solutions. That doesn't happen. Churn
through the recent threads and you see a few people with dead accounts making
vile comments; a bunch of people with downvotes bickering pointlessly; a bunch
of people talking past each other; and a few people making reasonable points.

I don't care about 'political' articles, but I dislike tedious Political
discussion with party lines.

EDIT: after a "big" event it's really tedious to have very many submissions.
You get articles from each person involved, and all the tech blogs, and people
commenting on the tech blogs, and maybe the companies, and then other people
commenting all the way through subbing their blogs too. Each of these threads
say pretty much the same thing. I'd happily leave 3 threads up, but it'd be
great if all the others died.

I want to read at least 3 articles a day which are totally incomprehensible to
me. If HN isn't giving me content which is way beyond my capability then
something is wrong.

What submissions I upvote: Any YC posts; almost all Show HN posts; almost
anything that has any code; some of the science stuff (from good sources).

I flag obvious spam; after recent events I left 5 threads untouched by flagged
the rest; I flag items which are clearly partisan politics.

------
mjn
I think it's fairly random what hits the front page, but inside-valley drama
has a higher probability than general political news. That said, the top story
on the front page currently is about the rise in disability claims, which has
a fairly political discussion thread, and isn't tech-specific
(<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5424241>).

The internet sales tax is hardly the only major political news this week which
didn't make the HN front page. My own top story of the week would probably be
the U.S. Congress repeatedly interfering in scientific research, with exhibits
(a) [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/21/tom-coburn-
national...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/21/tom-coburn-national-
science-foundation_n_2921081.html) and (b)
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5418473>. But those didn't interest HN
either, whether due to submission randomness or actual disinterest.

------
anywherenotes
I do not come to HN for political discussions, so I'd prefer less of them.
When a techie is involved, it's worth a mention here, but I'd much rather read
about startup related issues on hn.

~~~
mindcrime
Same here. Unless there's a VERY specific connection between the political
angle and something to do with technology / startups, I'm really not
interested. I get enough political debate on reddit, from my boss, on
<http://www.ncgunowners.com>, and any number of other places.

