111–120 of 170 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a full time job to help a VC fund make more money. This thread is bizarre and cult like.
Ha yeah I was making fun of the (many) people who think this is some kind of noble labor of love.
Well if he’s busy banning people for political ideologies when in reality he’s running a message board with the technology from 1995
HN isn't the place for politics. If I was a zealous liberal or a zealous right wing nutjob I'd imagine I'd get roughly equal treatment.
I'd like to think that more than a few people grasp this. He's some kind of machine - in the best, complimentary way. His replies to emails are succinct, helpful, educational, and still personable. No idea how he retains his equanimity across hundreds/thousands of interactions, mostly with strangers. IMO it's a worthwhile lesson (and a free one) to peruse his comment history: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=d…
Additionally, he tends to favor the original aggressor, ignoring the concept of instigation to fix the proximate cause of the negative interactions here. Don’t get caught punching second, in other words.
It’s classic utilitarianism; if 1% of users get shat upon by dang, and 99% in any way benefit from his negative behavior, I suppose the folks here would be alright with that?
As dang is shadowbanning people, I cannot agree with many of the popular sentiments expressed. I think shadowbanning is unjust, and if is someone is violating the rules nonstop they should be made aware of it through notice and an actual ban.
On rare occasion I've seen [banned] accounts as well with showdead on.
Weird thing I've noticed is [dead] accounts that aren green tend to be typical troll, spam, or people who can't calm down during certain discussions. They may even have some comments still love.
[banned] accounts on the other hand tend to be completely deragned. They seem almost obsessed. Despite being banned they continue to make essay posts about whatever it is that got them hanne over large periods of time. Could be bots, but the complexity and variety of the language in the posts tends to be moderately complex.
Posts like these, for me, highlight the class divide. PG thinks "few people" grasp how much effort dang expends, when in reality, a whole class of people working in customer service roles expend roughly the same amount of effort. Sure, dang might be uniquely efficient, but the expenditure of effort is on the same order. I once witnessed a Delta employee in ATL process a queue of customers, all with issues regarding t…
There's a specific term (Emotional Labor) coined by service workers to describe staying even-keeled when dealing with users/customers. That term wouldn't exist if "few people" grasped how hard that part of it is.
I'd like to think that more than a few people grasp this. He's some kind of machine - in the best, complimentary way. His replies to emails are succinct, helpful, educational, and still personable. No idea how he retains his equanimity across hundreds/thousands of interactions, mostly with strangers. IMO it's a worthwhile lesson (and a free one) to peruse his comment history: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=d…
I honestly wonder sometimes how it’s physically possible to do what dang does, it seems like such an enormous and Sisyphean task. Sad to see twitter replies complaining about the moderation, because if it wasn’t for the moderation the quality here would be much lower, the moderation is the whole reason those people are attracted to participating here. Respect and many thanks indeed.
the ycombinator web UI does not encourage real-time or even near-time responses.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The one complaint is this: > He has had a habit of silencing some long-standing members of HN If anything, that shows excellent moderation skills. Everyone should abide by the same rules.
One thing I learned from moderating an internet community in the past: Some of the long-term users had become experts at skirting the rules. They had seen so many posts and watched so many other people get moderated that they learned how to walk right up to the line without explicitly crossing it. Some times they'd become very good at baiting other people into breaking the rules. Or they would writing extremely infla…
I love what Dang refers to as HN's non-silowed nature. It is easy to find useful and fascinating discussions on any topic. When I have the time and energy, sometimes I dive in for a few hours. When I come up for air I'm tired but generally pleased with experience.
A common complaint here is that it ain't what it used to be. There may be a little more fluff now but when it's good - It's darn good.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
As someone that moderated a … pithy … community site, I am all too familiar with that type of complaint. I would regularly get called a “nazi,” because I would step into catfights, and break them up, or “nip them in the bud.” Once you’ve been doing it a while, you learn to smell trouble brewing, and it can escalate rapidly. Many folks chafe at restrictions, and they may actually be correct. They, themselves, may be e…
> Many folks chafe at restrictions, and they may actually be correct. We're at least a couple decades beyond the point where a reasonable person could possibly entertain such a thought. Lack of restrictions always turns communities into cesspools. They don't necessarily die, but the people that hang out there are the ones that enjoy spending time in cesspools, and that's usually different from the vision the creator…
When we can't assume one or the other we have to look at something else where we might reach a conclusion. If someone says they are oppressed we can look at what would hinder their oppression. Arguably this would be things like transparency, participation and equality. As those things make oppression harder.
So if someone says they are being silenced a reasonable person might look if there are multiple known moderators who can check each other, a moderation log to see how moderation is happening or some voting system to reflect the opinions of the community.
In most cases where people are says they are being silenced these things doesn't exist. As such it would be unreasonable to dismiss their opinion as there seems to be an argument for the restrictions not being legitimate. Otherwise you just create a different cesspool of unreasonable people.
A lot of replies on twitter critique dang on moderating their comments. But in reality, I think this is a good thing. There are already enough near-total-free speech zones on the Internet (and we see how many of them turn out). It's far more personally interesting to me to see how a conversations in a space moderated above a certain threshold evolves.
You must be referring to Facebook and Twitter.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I honestly wonder sometimes how it’s physically possible to do what dang does, it seems like such an enormous and Sisyphean task. Sad to see twitter replies complaining about the moderation, because if it wasn’t for the moderation the quality here would be much lower, the moderation is the whole reason those people are attracted to participating here. Respect and many thanks indeed.
i wonder what tool dang uses to see comment replies and respond ? the ycombinator web UI does not encourage real-time or even near-time responses.