This might be well-intended to restrict bot posting, but it also silences dissent. HN is one of the few places left on the internet where dissenting voices can post. A dissenting voice already has to work against the hivemind, adding more restrictions will increase the echo chamber effect.
Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting
271–280 of 559 posts
Re: Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting
#272Re: Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting
#273I was thinking of setting up a system to highlight sock-puppeters and other consistent-rule-violating accounts, as a 'fun project' that might improve the HN experience. I've asked dang in another thread if he has any objections, but am curious to hear other input as well -- is this something people would want? Obviously it would not change the comments that are actually on HN, it would just call out 'bad' contributors more explicitly. I don't actually have experience in this area, so no promises that I'll be able to build it quickly, or take the best approach in the initial implementation.
My initial thought is to set up a devoted account like "sock_puppet_detector", use the infrastructure from https://hackersmacker.org/, and add any likely sock-puppets as 'foes'. Then anyone can install hackersmacker, and add "sock_puppet_detector" as a friend to see sock-puppets highlighted. Likewise for rules violators.
Re: Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting
#274We're going to at least restrict Show HNs for a while. I do think this is relevant though: "HN can't be immune from macro trends" - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
I was thinking of setting up a system to highlight sock-puppeters and other consistent-rule-violating accounts, as a 'fun project' that might improve the HN experience. But it strikes me that the HN staff probably already does something like this, they may not welcome a side-loaded project of this sort, and it would require some automated crawling of HN (which again may be unwelcomed). Finally, I don't actually have…
I'm wary about new accounts such as yours wanting to censor and shape discourse by antagonizing people who hold diverse views that differ from your own here.
The HN culture has shifted drastically over the past 5 years.
Re: Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting
#275We're going to at least restrict Show HNs for a while. I do think this is relevant though: "HN can't be immune from macro trends" - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
Agree, HN can't be immune to what happens in the programming world. Would be great though if we can have a way to mute or hide accounts. This way each HN user will be able to clean his own feed of articles.
That works for me so long as it’s not the main solution, as I personally don’t want to curate, I’d rather just partake in a sanely moderated forum and that’s my understanding of what HN has been it’s just facing a new challenge with ai spam
Re: Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting
#276I don't understand how this is supposed to solve anything, and I've seen it suggested as a solution multiple times. If you restrict comments to older accounts, all it's going to do is make the bot creators speculatively open and proactively age accounts for future use.
Several of the posts I've seen are from autonomous AI agents, which don't currently seem to have that kind of long-term planning.
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Re: Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting
#277Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think the right people will stick around. There is a certain kind of indivudal that has the paitence to understand that a system that restricts new accounts from post is a good thing. Of recent, there have been a lot of posters that come here from the open web just to try and slant opinion.
I believe HN's success is in large part not presuming to have a good idea of what "the right people" are. This doesn't mean it doesn't have a strong sense of what bad behavior is. It clearly does.
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Re: Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting
#278Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was thinking of setting up a system to highlight sock-puppeters and other consistent-rule-violating accounts, as a 'fun project' that might improve the HN experience. But it strikes me that the HN staff probably already does something like this, they may not welcome a side-loaded project of this sort, and it would require some automated crawling of HN (which again may be unwelcomed). Finally, I don't actually have…
I'm wary about new accounts such as yours wanting to censor and shape discourse by antagonizing people who hold diverse views that differ from your own here. The HN culture has shifted drastically over the past 5 years.
user: pinkmuffinere
created: August 8, 2021
karma: 2686
Re: Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting
#279Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm wary about new accounts such as yours wanting to censor and shape discourse by antagonizing people who hold diverse views that differ from your own here. The HN culture has shifted drastically over the past 5 years.
user: pinkmuffinere created: August 8, 2021 karma: 2686
That's a baby in HN years.
Re: Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting
#280Let's turn HN into a place where we all grow old together until it slowly dies when we do.
That's indeed the problem with restricting new users. Existing community members always want to do that, but it's a recipe for not surviving.
I'm hoping to do a show HN soon on something I've been working on, but my account is currently only 6 days old. Tips?
Btw, restricting new accounts (based on karma/age/whatever) could be combined with the option to ask mods for permission somehow, although that'd have to be done in a way that that doesn't become too much work.