Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where are they on-topic? Truth or fairness, as checked by moderators, isn't a standard for discussion anywhere else on HN. For that matter, does that mean you're checking the truth and/or fairness of all of these job postings?
They could be on topic in lots of places, assuming they relate to some interesting point under discussion and are not just a grudge against X. You're right in part, but standards aren't binary, they involve messy interpretation. There's no law of the excluded middle—it's all middle and it's all included. So instead of asking 'what are the axioms to be universally applied on this site', you need to ask 'what in this c…
Perhaps I didn't ask the question clearly enough. Let me rephrase: Where would I go, as an HN user, to discuss a particular job posting, where it is either the posting itself or the job application process directly related to the posting that is the interesting point under discussion?
> So instead of asking 'what are the axioms to be universally applied on this site', you need to ask 'what in this context will make the site better or worse in the long run'.
I'm not actually asking the former. I'm well aware that everything is guidelines and grey areas.
What I'm asking is, what's so special about the job posting thread that it requires much stricter rules (yet without technical enforcement)? What is the mechanism of the benefit to the site in the long run?
> But we have no such way, and the damage caused by false or misleading replies is the bigger risk.
I keep seeing this justification, but I honestly wonder where it comes from. Specifically, what is the damage to HN itself?
Also, why is this justification not equally applied to false or misleading job postings and only to the replies?
As my sibling-comment pointed out, this is potentially true of any comment anywhere. Again, what's so special about this thread?
> Allowing Who Is Hiring threads to turn into a combination job-board-plus-Glassdoor-style pelting range would not benefit the community in the long run.
I think it's unfair, possibly even insulting, to the HN community to say that permitting any level of complaint is the same as allowing a "pelting range". It's a false dichotomy or a slippery slope argument, at best.
Nobody is advocating for a free-for-all.