I'm concerned that articles like these paper over the myriad issues that arose when one person (dang) holds a monopoly on the content of a community. I further worry that this is only going to embolden dang into further deluded thought that he can't make mistakes, that his judgement is without flaw.
The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News
321–330 of 812 posts
Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News
#322Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn’t call it strict at all. He’s actually way more liberal about stuff than most over-bearing Reddit mods who think it’s their job to be editors of their own private newspaper rather than helping only when there’s no other option. This is why dang is so good at what he does as it draws a difficult balance.
I'm of the opinion that it is best to err on the side of strictness. Once you make a reasonable exception, you open a precedent, and some people are very good at digging up and pointing out precedent.
I don't think you realize what you're advocating for. There's protection from the hate that lives on the internet, and then there's grooming a narrative. What you're asking for is the latter, not the former.
Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News
#323Earlier quoted context omitted.
The heavy startup focus of hackernews (like, it's an incubator's news agitator) + lots of successful tech-types, like FAANG employees with 200K+ salaries. Lots of other commentators I've seen on here are experience pilots, engineers, etc. Maybe not Bill Gates money but certainly on the higher end of the bell-curve when it comes to education and pay. I don't disagree that there is a lot of aspirational talk on here to…
> like FAANG employees with 200K+ salaries. At first I was a little amazed that many negative articles and comments about these companies were being down-voted, just notice the latest article on the status of a pregnant employee at Google, where the discussion's focus was very quickly and conveniently moved from how said employee had been mistreated by Google to how bad it is that Google allows its employees to discu…
What you’re saying doesn’t make any sense. I think people just disagree. And by working in a place you get a different perspective than on the outside.
For example, I often downvote uninformed and highly opinionated financial comments because working inside the industry gives me a different perspective. Also there’s a self selection effect: Those who hate Google probably won’t work there.
Moreover, the less popular a company is, the more they are going to have to pay you. For example in finance Goldman almost always pays below the market rate, because they are the best at what they do and everyone wants to work their. So I think employees of FANG actually have an incentive to spread and promote bad news about the company, to an extent (they don’t want to depress the share price, though).
Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News
#324Earlier quoted context omitted.
Without the moderation the trolls take over, and then it doesn't matter what most people here understand.
I highly doubt "2 moderators" would be able to do anything if half of the community was composed of trolls. The fact that trolls are very few in the first place, and not welcome by other members who flag them and downvote them to hell, make it possible for it to work even with a low level of moderation.
1 moderator is infinitely better than 0.
I run a group of 20,000+ people, and if I didn't set the tone on what the group is about, regularly, the value of it would drop to nothing.
I love my community. But I absolutely recognize the role I play in keeping it a nice place to visit.
Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News
#325Hacker News is a well-moderated community, but it's illustrative to see where Hacker News fails at moderation. While Hacker News is great at protecting the community from disruptive individuals, it tends to fall down when protecting unpopular individuals against the community turned mob. I support Hacker News moderating itself however it chooses. However, if we are looking at it as a moderation model for large, open,…
> While Hacker News is great at protecting the community from disruptive individuals, it tends to fall down when protecting unpopular individuals against the community turned mob. Isn't every community -barring a few wild west's- like that? One Usenet, someone with an unpopular opinion would end up in people's kill file. On IRC, someone with an unpopular opinion would end up on people's ignore or would get kicked off…
The problem is that dang decides for the whole community, which is predatory towards minority opinions, and we're not talking about being predatory towards Nazis, more like people who express their positive opinions about Linux desktop when folks generally agree it's not great (or vice versa).
Dang doesn't allow dissent in the comments, he actively tries to reduce it, and it's a net negative for this community.
Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News
#326Earlier quoted context omitted.
My complaint about political topics is that the views expressed just aren't very well informed. Comments are typically what smart engineers would write, but there is very rarely any expertise in the topic like there would be in a discussion about compilers.
Well informed in what respect? Who should would be considered well informed? People who study politics professionally, so, journalists? I think the discussions here tend to be far more well informed than most political discussions, most of which amount to essays by people who don't even want you to be well informed. This silly New Yorker article is a good case in point. It lists a whole host of complaints about comme…
I'm inclined to agree. People are entitled to their opinions even if they are not well informed. Provided they don't break any rules they should feel free to air them. Those that are better informed have the opportunity to set them straight. One of the reasons I come here is the see the various opinions and arguments.
The "ill advised citations" is a bit weird one :-)
Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News
#327Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News
#328Earlier quoted context omitted.
Something can be both an expression of privilege and a very good idea. Example: The advice to get at least 8 hours of sleep at a regular time each night. This reflects: - the economic privilege of not needing to do irregular shift work - not having a chronic disease which interrupts sleep - not being a parent - having a regular place to sleep at all. However, it is still a good idea for one’s physical and mental heal…
Wealthy people actually get less sleep than the poor for obvious reasons: their time is more valuable. They also work more hours and have less “free” time for the same reason.
The study mentioned here indicates otherwise https://www.tuck.com/the-inequality-of-sleep/
"the likelihood of short sleep increased with greater poverty"
Poor people are much more likely to work irregular shifts and night shifts, which have a serious impact on sleep.
Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News
#329[deleted]
Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News
#330I guess it is a perfect opportunity to thank dang and sctb for their unobtrusive and friendly moderation efforts. The article itself was a bit disappointing because it focused on political issues. In my opinion the strength of HN in this regard is that it is both a "sjw cesspool" and a "haven for alt-right", as evidenced by the fact that a comment on a controversial topic can easily float near zero points while rakin…
Honestly, I've seen some very strange moderation here. For example, a rather good article explaining Bill Gates and Warren Buffet's concerns about cryptocurrency was removed. Remember, Bill Gates is an excellent software engineer; and both Bill Gates and Warren Buffet know a thing or two about economics.
Perhaps you're confusing moderation and flagging.
Users themselves get tired of bitcoin flogging and bitcoin bashing, over and over again. Variety is the spice of life.