Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week • Hacker News Board

Re: Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week

#101

Post by maxerickson » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 7:54 PM UTC

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #90

tunesmith wrote: post #61

I'm not really a fan of this move. I don't see it as an addiction that reduces its power over us by abstaining for a period of time. I also don't agree with applying system effects to individuals - while political discussion can appear to create a dulling or muting effect overall it doesn't mean that individual people aren't being positively influenced, in ways that might have even larger positive effects on the syst…

and that ignoring the "virus" or "symptoms" will make the adjustment that much more traumatic There are other sites to talk about politics on. Personally, I'm happy to come to HN to learn new things. Letting the community process the new inputs vigorously might seem more traumatic in the short term but it could also make us stronger overall. An extremely active 3000-day HN user with excellent technical contributions…

An extremely active 3000-day user with excellent technical contributions was recently banned due to politics.

They were banned because of what they chose to write, it wasn't just because of a political discussion.

Re: Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week

#102

Post by freddyc » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 7:54 PM UTC

The beauty (in my eyes at least) of Hacker News has always been that the most interesting/relevant stories and discussions find their way to the top of the feed. I've discovered topics and perspectives (including those I disagree with) that I otherwise wouldn't have been exposed to if it weren't for HN. I've always felt there is something of a built-in filter present, so this move feels a little forced and unnecessary to me.

Re: Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week

#103

Post by slater » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 7:54 PM UTC

Can we have an Amazon/AWS "news" detox week, too? :D

Re: Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week

#104

Post by rubicon33 » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 7:54 PM UTC

While I don't general like censorship... I think this is great. I don't come to this forum for political discussions. I come here to here interesting stories from like minded scientists and inquisitive people. Politics is incredibly divisive and very rarely results in intriguing conversations, more usually name calling and flaming. Nice bold move from HN Mods.

Re: Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week

#105

Post by woodhull » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 7:55 PM UTC

Do you really think that the techno-capitalist libertarian utopia that many in silicon valley seem to be trying to build is a-political, immune from regulation or popular backlash?

Anything political or critical of YC already gets disappeared from this site quite quickly. I had assumed that this policy (which always seemed misguided to me) was already in effect.

I think the historical moment we find ourselves in is a time to make ourselves more uncomfortable rather than retreat and pretend that the only things that matter are software and how we might make more money on the internet.

Politics is about coming together to find common solutions to problems and make sure that no one gets left behind. Isn't it the job of a responsible community (even a VC sponsored one dedicated to making money with tech as HN is) to lean in when things start to feel hard rather than tune out and ignore our responsibilities as citizens and fellow humans?

Re: Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week

#106

Post by drzaiusapelord » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 7:55 PM UTC

rustyfe wrote: post #32

One question that interests/concerns me is making judgement calls about what is/is not a political story. Some links will be cut and dry, some will not. Some comments will be immediately identified as political, some will just be politics adjacent. For instance, on a story about self driving cars, will it be appropriate to talk about UBI? On a story about cryptography, will it be acceptable to talk about how it appli…

> On a story about cryptography

Or Net Neutrality. Or research/tech about Climate Change.

It seems like this could easily be abused by partisans who want to deflect the issues. Requests to have mods delete climate change articles about a hot startup doing solar power seems to empower climate deniers. Requests to have mods delete Trump's anti-net neutrality appointments seems to empower Trump supporters.

Re: Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week

#107

Post by whack » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 7:55 PM UTC

I like this idea as a short-term experiment. Here's another in the same vein: stories with voting enabled but comments disabled. Kind of like a focus group where you just listen to others, without jumping in to assert your own viewpoints.

Re: Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week

#108

Post by Apocryphon » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 7:55 PM UTC

tyingq wrote: post #64

How broadly are we defining "politics" here? Some topics I see here frequently...are these flaggable for the week? Uber Contractor vs Employee, AirBnb vs Zoning Laws, Universal Basic Income, Privacy Issues

Yeah, I think there's definitely things that seem overtly political "politician/organization/nation X did Y" and "this tech affects public via Z"

Re: Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week

#109

Post by davidw » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 7:55 PM UTC

tarikjn wrote: post #62

I find this experiment a bit strange/disturbing, avoiding political subjects is a way of putting the head in the sand. HN is a community of hackers and entrepreneurs and politics affects these subjects one way or another wether we want to avoid it or not, and are an important component of entrepreneurial and technical subjects. It might be fine if HN was a scientific community, but it is not the case, and even then p…

> head in the sand

There are a ton of other sites where you can follow and debate politics all you want.

I'm starting to stick my nose into local politics here in Bend, Oregon, but there's no reason I need to talk about it on HN. I'm ok with compartmentalizing things: HN for tech/startups/'interesting things', and other sites for other things. I love bike racing, too, and feel that it's the best sport in the world, but I see no need to introduce bike racing articles here.

Re: Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week

#110

Post by trowawee » Mon, Dec 05, 2016, 7:56 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #48

rustyfe wrote: post #32

One question that interests/concerns me is making judgement calls about what is/is not a political story. Some links will be cut and dry, some will not. Some comments will be immediately identified as political, some will just be politics adjacent. For instance, on a story about self driving cars, will it be appropriate to talk about UBI? On a story about cryptography, will it be acceptable to talk about how it appli…

Right, it's not possible to define "politics" precisely, and it would be a mistake to try. But there's nothing new in that; the HN guidelines have always mentioned politics without defining the term, and we get by. We can clarify, though. The main concern here is pure politics: the conflicts around party, ideology, nation, race, gender, class, and religion that get people hot and turn into flamewars on the internet.…

> But there's nothing new in that; the HN guidelines have always mentioned politics without defining the term, and we get by.

I mean, you clearly don't think that we have "gotten by"; generally a moratorium on a topic isn't required unless something is going wrong.