
Ask HN: We need a politics tab at the top of HN - 29_29
This is the premier tech destination on the web. I&#x27;m tired of political flame wars reaching the very top of HN. We really need a politics tab to filter out this negative energy, especially with 2020 on its way. Can we please make that happen?<p>I fall victim.<p>And then I remember, then I repeat: I cannot solve the worlds problems. All I can do is solve my own problem. When I attempt to solve the world’s problems, I become a problem ...
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mtmail
Most stories about Brexit, HK, natural disaster, breaking news and "politician
X thinks" are already getting flagged regularly. Some stories have an
interesting angle though, like voting fraud, a proposed law that affects the
tech industry, HK protestors have been using mesh networks.

Even harder to decide if news about Musk, Bezos, Bill Gates, Thiel is relevant
or entertainment. Or company X sold to company Y, stock market news, bitcoin
movements.

So news about a new school shooter rarely makes it to the frontpage. An
article or opinion piece about gun control sometimes does. Same with the
current hurricane vs articles about climate change.

2016 election period (felt endless) has been handled alright on HN, I think
2020 election will be alright.

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kelnos
We already have a method to get rid of stories we don't like: the flag link.
If a story that you personally find offensive doesn't get flagged -> dead,
then perhaps the HNers on average _do_ want to see that kind of thing.

You make a good point that the impending 2020 election is bringing out a lot
of this stuff, but you can't effectively separate politics from tech. They
each affect each other greatly, and I don't want to have to go digging for
stories. I _like_ that everything is in one simple list. If I don't like the
tone of a particular article/thread, I can simply not engage, and move on to
the next one.

Even if we did do this, reasonable people could (and would!) disagree as to
what's tech-focused enough to be on the non-politics page vs. what should be
relegated to the politics page. We'd be exchanging one set of annoyances for
another, while complicating the site.

And at the end of the day, the mods should/will take care of things when they
get out of hand.

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krapp
Flagging isn't for ridding the site of stories you don't like or find
personally offensive - continue to abuse flags that way and you'll lose your
flagging privileges.

If you don't like a story you see on HN, your choices are to ignore it or hide
it. Hiding a story also hides comments for that story. Either way, you can
also post more of the content you would rather see. Complaining that stories
don't belong on HN or trying to ruin other people's conversations by flagging
them only makes the site worse for everyone else.

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Fnoord
> If you don't like a story you see on HN, your choices are to ignore it or
> hide it.

Upvote stories/comments you _do_ like.

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belltaco
Politics tab will make it worse. We will have people coming to HN to engage in
politics, which will foul up the discussion on the "main" HN.

