Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: We're being censored. Why?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 55 posts

Re: Ask HN: We're being censored. Why?

#31

Post by dang »

Users flag stories that they don't think fit the site guidelines. That's all that happened here.

I get that you disagree. People disagree about this all the time, often strongly. I doubt there's a single story that every user agrees belongs on HN.

The only unusual thing in this case is the drama you've created about it. We can debate whether a CIA director nomination belongs on HN, but there's no question that the above submission and your comments are breaking the site guidelines. Those are at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. Please read them and follow them when posting here. They're written the way they are for good reasons, based on over ten years of running this place.

No one's questioning the importance of major political stories, by the way. Of course they're important—much more important than most of what gets posted here. That's why we need flagging. Otherwise they would take over the site, and HN would be a completely different place.

HN's mandate is to gratify intellectual curiosity. Not all political stories are off topic, but the ones that only stir up outrage, however justifiably, and don't also gratify intellectual curiosity, are not a good fit.

Re: Ask HN: We're being censored. Why?

#32

Post by thisisit »

Sone7 wrote: post #18
thisisit wrote: post #16

IMO HN should stick to tech. And even if there is an argument over between Python or GO, I am fine with it. Politics shouldn't be discussed at all. It has been understood that thing don't go as smooth as in a community like these. I personally think that the story about Trump and Broadcom or endless parade of bitcoin at $x price shouldn't be voted up at all. But, somehow people feel value in those. I tend to skip tho…

The CIA employ what percentage of the tech community again? Maybe this shouldn't be considered an entirely political story, given the ramifications it has for all of us.

I am sorry but no one is stopping you from discussing the ramifications on other platforms like Reddit etc, or messaging like whatsapp or on phone with friends or family. What you are currently asking is HN to enforce you viewpoint on what should be discussed.

Re: Ask HN: We're being censored. Why?

#33

Post by pliftkl »

snackpack wrote: post #19
Exuma wrote: post #3

I go to HN to read tech related things, not more political drivel. I'm glad it got removed.

To call this drivel is specious. It's not a political cartoon, it's about illegal torture methods. The tech industry, with its tremendous growth and influence, has a responsibility to pay attention to these things.

What other things do we, as an industry, have a responsibility to pay attention to? Environment? Health and sanitation in developing countries? The civil war in Syria? HIV? There are a variety of areas where tech could play an important role in changing the lives of (b|m)illions of people. How do you draw the line? What makes torture (which I would argue is completely unethical but directly affects few people) more important than hunger (which isn't an ethical issue but which clearly affects millions)?

Re: Ask HN: We're being censored. Why?

#38

Post by enraged_camel »

dang wrote: post #31

Users flag stories that they don't think fit the site guidelines. That's all that happened here. I get that you disagree. People disagree about this all the time, often strongly. I doubt there's a single story that every user agrees belongs on HN. The only unusual thing in this case is the drama you've created about it. We can debate whether a CIA director nomination belongs on HN, but there's no question that the ab…

>>Not all political stories are off topic, but the ones that only stir up outrage, however justifiably, and don't also gratify intellectual curiosity, are not a good fit.

So does that mean I can flag anything that doesn’t gratify my intellectual curiosity?

Because I personally find it very intellectually curious what is currently happening in the United States, but when those stories get buried by a few overzealous people then I feel like I should do the same when someone else posts a story about the latest JavaScript framework. Yet I feel like if I started flagging them I would probably lose my privileges here.

Re: Ask HN: We're being censored. Why?

#39

Post by spoonier »

dang wrote: post #31

Users flag stories that they don't think fit the site guidelines. That's all that happened here. I get that you disagree. People disagree about this all the time, often strongly. I doubt there's a single story that every user agrees belongs on HN. The only unusual thing in this case is the drama you've created about it. We can debate whether a CIA director nomination belongs on HN, but there's no question that the ab…

What enraged camel said.

Also, it's messed up that a HN mod would accuse a user who wants this story unflagged and discussed of "creating drama".

Your reluctance to state exactly which guidelines OP broke is telling, as is your open contempt and patronising attitude to the many HN users who have expressed that they want to be allowed to discuss this. Regardless of how much "outrage" it might generate (seriously that's gotta be one of the stupidest dang things I've ever read) we need to talk about this.

Re: Ask HN: We're being censored. Why?

#40

Post by nicolashahn »

enraged_camel wrote: post #38
dang wrote: post #31

Users flag stories that they don't think fit the site guidelines. That's all that happened here. I get that you disagree. People disagree about this all the time, often strongly. I doubt there's a single story that every user agrees belongs on HN. The only unusual thing in this case is the drama you've created about it. We can debate whether a CIA director nomination belongs on HN, but there's no question that the ab…

>>Not all political stories are off topic, but the ones that only stir up outrage, however justifiably, and don't also gratify intellectual curiosity, are not a good fit. So does that mean I can flag anything that doesn’t gratify my intellectual curiosity? Because I personally find it very intellectually curious what is currently happening in the United States, but when those stories get buried by a few overzealous p…

It could be time to specify the meaning of "gratify intellectual curiosity" further than it has been.
Post reply on HN