It is reductio ad absurdum applied correctly. I made a completely absurd proposal, because the response is obvious - any consideration of "fake porn being fake" will stop mattering super fast once actual faces are put in the picture.
Dear mods. I know it isn’t you - but it’s a shame to see this flagged. Seems some people wish they only needed to think about complexity in space and time but not complexity in society.
Flagging as silent protest won’t progress the debate because the issues and reasons don’t get discussed, people just object. If people dislike the direction HN is going they should be encouraged to speak up so everyone can talk through it.
Perhaps we need to reset community norms around flagging?
I have seen very little evidence that bad-faith flagging is actually punished at any appreciable scale on this site.
Either the flagging tools are too easy to get hold of for new users, or the culture of flagging on this site is positively rotten due to the lack of enforcement or a too-specific definition of what "bad faith" is.
I think many people have a fundamental misunderstanding of what and why people flag on this site. And as someone who also used to have this misunderstanding, I'll explain how I changed my mind on this topic.
A lot of people view flagging as "that is a troll post/comment" or "that was made in bad faith". But I think another reason many people flag is "this topic is highly unlikely to generate any useful discussion" or "this topic may be fine for discussion, but not on HN".
FWIW, I disagree with the flagging in this instance. Most importantly, I did learn something useful in the comments (the bit about how Apple previously almost banned Tumbler due to unintentional CSAM). But I also don't really begrudge folks who voted to flag. Political topics always have a lower bar for flagging IMO, because they nearly always devolve into useless tribal warfare - useless tribal warfare that you can easily get in spades on nearly any other forum/social media site online. And just look at the comments on this post. Most of them I'd characterize as generally uninsightful, and even disregarding my opinion, tons of the comments here are downvoted. So if some folks are a little too trigger happy to flag because they're at least trying to keep HN's uniquely high value discussions, I don't really blame them.
So while I disagree with the flagging in this instance, I also disagree that HN generally has a problem with bad-faith flagging.
> this topic is highly unlikely to generate any useful discussion
Some things need saying.
It doesn't always have to be a spirited, constructive rich debate in the comments. Some times it's just okay for one of us to tell it like it is.
I agree there are plenty of things that don't need repeating, don't need redundant commentary, and a billion etceteras, but the US is dangerously broken and the tech industry need to do their part to steer her away from endless fascism. This needs to be said, heard, and acted upon.
The best thing to do right now is email hn@ycombinator.com to bring the mistake to their attention. I’ve worked with them in the past, and I’m confident they’ll unflag it.
It will be difficult to encourage people to speak up if people get down voted for holding unpopular views.
It would be interesting if HN tried to create a safe space for people to discuss political subjects, free from flagging and downvotes, similar to the design of anti-polarization projects in the past.
HN could do itself a huge favour by posting the usernames of whomever flags/upvotes/downvotes. Add an ‘engagement’ link to reveal these details on every post/comment.
The community decided this warranted flagging. Just because you disagree doesn't mean flagging is broken, or that norms need resetting. Find another forum to discuss these topics if you feel so strongly about them.
'Go away' and 'find a forum interested in discussing the topics you are interested in discussing' are not the same, unless this topic is the only reason you visit HN, then I guess in effect they are the same, however that is obviously not my intent.
Are you surprised that HN users are fine with their big tech overlords?
I just clicked here to certify this would have been flagged. HN does not disappoint.
The only thing I like more than this confirmation are those posts you see sometimes of people smelling their own farts talking about how HN is oh so special because someone posted a reply that happens to be well thought out because they are competent in some narrow technical subject.
The best thing to do right now is politely email hn@ycombinator.com to bring the mistake to their attention. I’ve worked with them in the past, and I’m confident they’ll unflag it.
This is a very interesting community. It could be that some just flag politics, I'm sure there could be analytics on the flags by user to help filter out the hysterical lightweights and the 4chan adjacents. I personally would like to follow the flagged posts first then the rest lol I do understand some posts need to go though and the flagging feature is still probably useful.
Ethics? Gruber spent the past decade applauding every Apple mistake; the App Store monopoly, client side scanning, even Liquid Glass.
We didn't get bought out, Daring Fireball did. I have genuinely zero interest in watching him document the fact that Apple's monopoly ignores his demands. The true "hacker ethic group" recognized this decades ago, and stopped supporting Apple long before their ideology synchronized with pedophiles.
It is possible - and even so happens - that from time to time, even a person with whom you vehemently disagree with most things is right about something. As they say, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
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