
Should HN discuss this? - olfactory
Seems like very relevant considering the future of news, etc.<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;theintercept.com&#x2F;2018&#x2F;01&#x2F;03&#x2F;my-life-as-a-new-york-times-reporter-in-the-shadow-of-the-war-on-terror&#x2F;
======
ColinWright
Why not just, you know, submit it?

 _Edit:_ In fact it _was_ submitted some four hours ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16060448](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16060448)

~~~
olfactory
I think the moderators prefer not to have issues like this discussed. The goal
of my post was to discuss more broadly if issues like this are something that
should be discussed on HN.

~~~
ColinWright
Then perhaps rather than posting a raw, unadorned question with no actual
value, you might write something considered and post a link to that. As it
stands, Betteridge's Law of Headlines[0] suggests the answer is a simple "No".

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines)

~~~
olfactory
Based on the feedback I'm aware of from moderators, posting comments
specifically about the political issue of press freedom would be very much
frowned upon.

~~~
ColinWright
I'm not suggesting posting comments, I'm suggesting writing a considered
article that discusses the issue clearly, and then submitting that link. If
the discussion of the link gets heated, or goes off topic, then it can be
flagged and hence removed. But if what you write about it is genuinely
balanced and constructive, then maybe enough people will think it does have a
place.

Just my thoughts as to how you can do something that has value. The question
as you posed it seems not to. And yes, discussing political things like this,
especially such a hot topic as "freedom of the press", is generally marginal,
and I can certainly understand why people don't want it. Personally, I wish
people here could discuss things like this fully, calmly, and respectfully.
It's a shame that the evidence now suggests that it can't.

I'll leave it at that.

~~~
olfactory
> I'm suggesting writing a considered article that discusses the issue
> clearly, and then submitting that link.

I might try this, although it seems sort of a waste when I could just make a
text post on HN like I did. I am not in the "personal branding" business or
the "self promotion" business like many bloggers. In my opinion, a simple post
ought to suffice and I should not have to flee to another platform simply to
express an idea/question that can have comments below.

I could of course have offered some of my own analysis, but the very simple
question I ask in the post is whether the topic should be discussed (at all)
on HN.

While I share your lament about the quality of much political discussion, I
think the root of the problem is that people feel that their political beliefs
are something they are simply entitled to and that they should not have to
defend or question, as if they were religious beliefs and anyone who disagreed
was doing the equivalent of calling them a heathen. Suppressing political
speech as being (before the fact) impolite reinforces this idea.

So I think that by asking the question of whether HN should care about press
freedom we are really addressing a much bigger question, which is whether the
"News" RFS and the "Improving Democracy" RFS are actually important:
([https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/](https://www.ycombinator.com/rfs/)), and if
they are, _why_ they are important?

Would it insult anyone's sacred political religion to have this discussion?
Why is YC joining the ranks of speech suppressors who consider talk about
certain subjects profoundly offensive and dangerous? Does the story I censored
need to be censored from YC readers? Do hopeful YC applicants need to worry
about the possible consequences of posting a respectful and reasonable comment
about the article?

Ironically, this conversation we are having is likely to be classified by HN
mods as a flame war :)

------
dragonwriter
It's somewhat marginal for HN and might not get a lot of attention/upvotes,
and it's general interest enough that it might get some flags for that reason,
but I wouldn't flag it (and, in fact, have upvoted the story where it was
submitted on its own.)

