
Hackers News Is a Toxic Place - pesenti
https://twitter.com/mekkaokereke/status/1116870900517785600
======
wjossey
Can HN be toxic? Absolutely.

Was it toxic in the situation the author was describing? I think reasonable
people can have a discussion about this, but for arguments sake let’s say yes.

Is HN generally a positive non toxic environment? Yep! Hugely so.

HN is a remarkably diverse community. Perhaps not always from a gender
perspective, but definitely in terms of background and means. I can personally
attest to this as I run a mentoring program, and I tend to mostly get sign ups
from HN, and they have been from all over the world.

I get that we as a community aren’t always perfect. Sometimes that’s rooted in
our own biases and backgrounds. However, those comments lead to discussion,
which may shape or alter the perspective of someone who had a different set of
experiences, thus leading to a better future. Growth comes from points of
discomfort, not from sitting on the side lines.

If I could ask one thing to every HN lurker and commenter is to continue to be
open minded. Ask questions. Be thoughtful. Be respectful. Continually seek to
grow.

We’re always going to be imperfect as a community, and that’s by design. All
we can hope to do is be better today than we were yesterday. And better
tomorrow than we were today.

------
ChrisGranger
"At this point HN is no different than 4chan." -gim

When people spout utter nonsense like this, I fear there's no reasoning with
them.

~~~
drharby
1 - i agree with that sentiment

2 - your comment is exactly why.

Let me explain, first you express your opinion as a matter of fact. Their
opinion is nonsense? Why not pose a question as to why one may think that?
Consider the culture of 4chans various boards and some of the herd mentality
you see on hn.

I can tangibly see on a daily basis trite comments which add nothing of value
be upvoted because it expresses commonly held approved opinions (ie. Anti
amazon comments or issues with nimbys in sf)

However someone echo a concern about the importance of us military
intelligence infrastructure by virtue of supporting msft contracts with the us
military, someone is downvoted as a warmonger with little discussion.

The shitposts are real randy

~~~
ChrisGranger
To claim that Hacker News "is no different than 4chan", a site where one can
routinely find the most vile posts of racism, violence, child pornography and
so on _is_ utter nonsense, and that _is_ a fact, not merely my opinion.

~~~
drharby
Ok - aside from lets agree to disagree, im not equating the content are the
same.

I am equating the manner pf discourse and conversation flow.

Its rather disingenuous of you to think people are claiming racism violence
and child pornography here.

Besides, 4channel is now heavily modded to be sfw since it has been acquired
from moot and the owner is trying to drive ad revenue.

It isnt 2008 - and please again, stop passing opinion as fact chris granger. I
expect greater from hn posters.

I get some solid content here, but to downvote on disagreement and then
ignote2a genuine attempt to exchange ideas is discomforting to see.

I dont anticipate you to understand and i thoroughly expect this to simply be
downvoted.

~~~
collapse
>Its rather disingenuous of you to think people are claiming racism violence
and child pornography here

krapp did that in this thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19655230](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19655230).
You might need to turn showdead on in your profile to see it.

~~~
drharby
Ah - yea that's just plain silly right there. And frustrating bc it throws the
meta discussion out the window

------
mattip
It’s not binary. People and forums can be fine sometimes, toxic sometimes. The
question is what happens when things go wrong. Is there a way to recover? Is
there enough concern and empathy to actually move forward from a possible
hurtful incident? Or do we burn it all down and stop talking. We need more
nuance in our lives, more willingness to actually engage, listen and change.

------
creaghpatr
>Hacker News is a toxic place, but not because of all the people who make it
hard for under-represented folks. But because of all the "good dudes" who act
like it's not a toxic place.

Wow, the bad people are bad AND the good people are bad!

------
acconrad
Every place is a toxic place.

More specifically, every place has toxic _people_.

It is your responsibility as a citizen of that community to speak up (either
in the form of a flag or hiding that person) if you see content that is
objectionable, off-topic, or offensive.

We will never rid the world of bad people. But we can choose to prevent their
voices from echoing any louder.

------
hirundo
> me, down voted <

HN is a toxic place.

> me, up voted <

What a fine symposium of scholars.

------
joshka
(Hacker news toxic... have you seen twitter...? ;)

------
Lausbert
Does anyone now, why this one is flagged? I don‘t want to contribute to
discussion yet and I always tell people about the amazing and open discussions
on HN, but seeing this thread flagged feels very strange.

~~~
pxue
Because this is HN. It's a forum about tech, startups, and entrepreneurship.
If you want polarizing politics go to Reddit.

~~~
lightedman
Hey Dang, prove otherwise. You have to reach for the hardest things to justify
your actions. Are you too much of a coward to face your criticism?

------
lightedman
Read the comments. They highlight HN's underhanded censorship of people. HN is
more than toxic, it is an American site run by un-American people with un-
American ideals.

------
undoware
the comments on this post -- the apologia, the denials, the profusion of fine
distinctions -- is a damning and powerful body of evidence for the claim
presented.

Congrats, HN. You played yourself.

