

Censorship On Hacker News - patdryburgh
http://patdryburgh.com/blog/censorship-on-hacker-news/

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freejack
I can see why the original headline might have been edited for clarity - the
mental leap from "porno site" to "productivity porn" is non-obvious.

I'd be more inclined to chalk this one up to miscommunication (the bad
headline) and good intentions (editing the headline for clarity) than I would
to call this outright censorship.

~~~
patdryburgh
“I can see why the original headline might have been edited for clarity - the
mental leap from "porno site" to "productivity porn" is non-obvious.”

Perhaps it is non-obvious reading only the title, but the article did go on to
clarify what the intent of using the word "porno" was.

My problem with it is that editing the title in this manner sets up an
expectation for the reader, and could cause the reader to become upset when
they see the actual title has the word "porno" in it. As I said, the article
clarifies what I mean, but if someone is sensitive to the use of that type of
language, then they may feel they have been duped into looking at content they
wouldn't otherwise look at.

As I pointed out in the article, this doesn't appear to be a common
experience. I couldn't find anyone else online complaining about Hacker News
censoring their content. But, I wanted to make clear what my intentions were,
and hopefully open up a discussion that could possibly lead to needed clarity
on exactly what the rules of this community are.

------
patdryburgh
I received a great email from Andrew de Andrade, a fellow Hacker News reader,
on why what I perceived to be censorship wasn't, and how it was my fault as
the link submitter for not providing a title that provided better utility to
the community.

Please, accept my sincerest apologies for my misunderstanding and for jumping
to conclusions. This article was not written out of malice towards Hacker
News, but rather as an attempt to bring clarity to what is and isn't accepted
in this community.

I've added a note on the post apologizing for offending anyone, and inviting
anyone who would like to discuss the issue further to reach me via email
(hello [at] patdryburgh.com)

Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Pat

