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Ask HN: Where to publish a critical work with potentially offensive content

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Re: Ask HN: Where to publish a critical work with potentially offensive content

#31
Lol. I know of your name for some reason, though it's not because of Medium or Twitter.

Anyways, others have already said it, but I'll say it again.

Substack. So long as you aren't calling for violence on others, insurrection, all that jazz; you should be fine. Besides, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) is tame in comparison to other authors and even philosophers that people write/talk about. Probably smarter than some of them too.

Sure, he said some words that some people today don't like, but when one considers context of the times, it should be allowable. Especially when considering things like the creative license of authors and artists.

A few things though to consider before using Substack.

1. They say your posts can be as long as you want, but due to the nature of Gmail limitations, it's essentially artificially limited by gmail. So if you want people to be able to read your entire article in their email, make sure you don't use too many large data pictures, etc stuff like that.

2. The site is constantly saving your work in the event of a power outage, or network error. The latter happens somewhat often with them, due to the nature of the beast, and of humans. When cloudflare was getting some flak over Kiwifarms a few months ago, it ended up getting some sort of attack that took down Substack somewhat as well if I understand correctly. It only lasted a few hours though, tops. So pay attention to when the network error message pops up, and stop typing till it goes away.

3. Their setup is still being worked on and added to, so if you think it looks a little bland, don't worry you are not alone. But that sort of works for it as well, as it helps keep things low cost I bet.

And

4. You can monetize through Stripe.

Re: Ask HN: Where to publish a critical work with potentially offensive content

#32
post #26

> And of course in writing this there are some well known racial slurs (and some antiquated, unfamiliar ones) that will have to be quoted and referred to, which I expect would probably end up getting my account automatically banned. > The article will be showing Huckleberry Finn and Pudd'nhead Wilson as anti-racist works, so don't suggest any actually pro-racism sites. In today's culture wouldn't any site that permit…

No. I agree with OP’s interpretation and I agree with representing the work as written in expressing that interpretation.

I wouldn’t host any content I consider racist. If this is what OP describes, I would host it. I would want to review it first and discuss any concerns if they arise. And I also have a lot on my plate so it would take some coordination on expectations/requirements and time to set up. But “in today’s culture”, as an anti-racist myself I’d gladly support this piece as described.

Edit: Sorry should’ve made it explicit! OP if you want to be hosted by a rando human on HN who is interested in your piece, instead of a platform, I’m easy to contact.

Re: Ask HN: Where to publish a critical work with potentially offensive content

#33
post #26

> And of course in writing this there are some well known racial slurs (and some antiquated, unfamiliar ones) that will have to be quoted and referred to, which I expect would probably end up getting my account automatically banned. > The article will be showing Huckleberry Finn and Pudd'nhead Wilson as anti-racist works, so don't suggest any actually pro-racism sites. In today's culture wouldn't any site that permit…

Nope. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs

Re: Ask HN: Where to publish a critical work with potentially offensive content

#34
post #26

> And of course in writing this there are some well known racial slurs (and some antiquated, unfamiliar ones) that will have to be quoted and referred to, which I expect would probably end up getting my account automatically banned. > The article will be showing Huckleberry Finn and Pudd'nhead Wilson as anti-racist works, so don't suggest any actually pro-racism sites. In today's culture wouldn't any site that permit…

I don't think so. Every major literary magazine (including online ones) publishes articles and stories with racial language in them; readers generally understand the distinction between replication for the purposes of analysis, literary use, and gratuitous use.

Re: Ask HN: Where to publish a critical work with potentially offensive content

#35

Have you tried posting it on your existing blog? How is your analysis of Twain so spicy that you’re expecting to both A. get autobanned by Medium and B. not be able to get the ban reversed upon appeal? Would you care to share a snippet of your literary analysis that you think might lead to you being kicked off your platform? Otherwise, this seems like a bit of an ad for your (edgy?) blog.

The author already explained that the issue is that he is planning on quoting offensive language from Mark Twain's Huck Finn. If you aren't familiar, the text contains gratuitous use of the n-word. I can totally understand the worry about getting picked up by automated moderation and not being able to appeal successfully. If Medium has an auto-ban policy on the n-word, the author could be deplatformed, or at the very…

The author thinks that quoting Mark Twain will get him permabanned from Medium without the ability to appeal successfully? On what factual grounds?

Considering the fact that the theoretical chance of that happening has gotten a link to his blog to the front of HN, I would be fascinated to see Medium employees justify “No quoting literature with mean words no matter the context” to the posters on here if they chose that route.

So far I’ve only got a couple of pieces of information: a link to a blog and the promise of some groundbreaking new literary analysis that’s ~too critical and offensive to the algorithm to even try posting~. It kind of reads like an ad.

I am familiar with Twain’s work, I’ve read it, along with lots of critiques and articles (he is one of the most popular and analyzed authors in US history)

Re: Ask HN: Where to publish a critical work with potentially offensive content

#37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author already explained that the issue is that he is planning on quoting offensive language from Mark Twain's Huck Finn. If you aren't familiar, the text contains gratuitous use of the n-word. I can totally understand the worry about getting picked up by automated moderation and not being able to appeal successfully. If Medium has an auto-ban policy on the n-word, the author could be deplatformed, or at the very…

The author thinks that quoting Mark Twain will get him permabanned from Medium without the ability to appeal successfully? On what factual grounds? Considering the fact that the theoretical chance of that happening has gotten a link to his blog to the front of HN, I would be fascinated to see Medium employees justify “No quoting literature with mean words no matter the context” to the posters on here if they chose th…

I'm guessing they don't want to deal with it.

This is actually good, if more people chose not to use Medium because of issues like this, Medium would adapt or die.

Re: Ask HN: Where to publish a critical work with potentially offensive content

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author thinks that quoting Mark Twain will get him permabanned from Medium without the ability to appeal successfully? On what factual grounds? Considering the fact that the theoretical chance of that happening has gotten a link to his blog to the front of HN, I would be fascinated to see Medium employees justify “No quoting literature with mean words no matter the context” to the posters on here if they chose th…

I'm guessing they don't want to deal with it. This is actually good, if more people chose not to use Medium because of issues like this, Medium would adapt or die.

Deal with what exactly? How is Medium supposed to “adapt” to someone’s theoretical issue with critiquing Mark Twain? Right now OP is… choosing not to post something.

I suppose Medium could request access to his hard drive, grep for documents containing slurs+”twain” and force-post them to alleviate his anxiety?

Re: Ask HN: Where to publish a critical work with potentially offensive content

#39
If you google search “site:medium.com twain (your choice of whatever slurs that you find relevant)” there are multiple articles that pop up. Some even include the n word in the title!

How is this not an ad for your upcoming spicy post?

Re: Ask HN: Where to publish a critical work with potentially offensive content

#40
I'm curious, does Medium have a reputation for algorithmic banning with no review process?

If it's a person who's reviewing keywords I'd have to think the context would be obvious, and could be specifically crafted to be so if needed.

But if I had reason to be worried about that I'd go set up an inexpensive server at DigitalOcean (etc) and just reference stuff from a medium post if that's where I had an audience I wanted to share it with.

Aside from that, "showing Huckleberry Finn and Pudd'nhead Wilson as anti-racist works" is probably a worthwhile and necessary thing right now, and easy to do. Anyone who's read Twain knows he deliberately exposed the ignorance of racism and cruelty of slavery but apparently he's not read as much these days. If all you're looking for are "offensive words" by today's standards you'll find them there.

His "Joan of Arc" does the same for women's rights. She's tougher, smarter, and more courageous and moral than all the men in that story. I really cannot see how focusing on those attributes of Twain's works could get you booted off Medium, but I could be surprised to learn it can in these "interesting times" we're living in.

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