Tell HN: Announcing tomhow as a public moderator • Hacker News Board

Re: Tell HN: Announcing tomhow as a public moderator

#251

Post by Tadpole9181 » Wed, Apr 02, 2025, 8:51 PM UTC

wordofx wrote: post #171

lolinder wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> HN is mainly left leaning This is largely an illusion, as can be seen by the number of people complaining in the other direction about how wacko libertarians or MAGA or whatever dominate on here. What you're actually observing is that HN is one of the more diverse public spaces you participate in and there's no personalized algorithm that filters the content to only show what you want. When your exposure to left-le…

If 2 people end up in a civilised debate. It’s not uncommon for people to flag and downvote the opinion they disagree with even if the opinion is valid or backed up with facts. Feelings get too hurt here.

That's why you have to earn down vote and flagging privileges here. It's still abused, I agree.

Re: Tell HN: Announcing tomhow as a public moderator

#252

Post by sanswork » Wed, Apr 02, 2025, 8:52 PM UTC

bell-cot wrote: post #186

jdoliner wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> On the face of it, HN should be terrible. It's a forum owned an investment firm as promotion for their business. I think it's at least as plausible that this is part of the magic that makes it good. HN is sufficiently "on the margin" that they don't have to do things like placate advertisers with their moderation policies. The mods like dang, tomhow and pg mostly care about HN as users rather than owners. > It woul…

Before even the "has a mission of its own" part, an independent non-profit needs to pay its bills. I suspect that dang & Co. aren't working for free. Similar for servers & internet connections & etc. And I'd bet that few people here want to see ads, or start paying for their accounts.

People here see ads regularly which is how hn pays the bills. YC hiring posts and company launches are all paid ads in the sense that being allowed to post them is why YC funds hn.

Re: Tell HN: Announcing tomhow as a public moderator

#253

Post by otterley » Wed, Apr 02, 2025, 8:53 PM UTC

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #209

Suppafly wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> People will frequently say that downvoting is not for disagreeing Those people are wrong.

Downvoting pushes peoples comments down and greys them out, effectively silencing them. It creates echo chambers. I reserve my downvotes for when arguments are made in bad faith, rely on logical fallacies, or present know-false information as an argument. If someone presents an argument on something I disagree with, but it's made in good faith and is well-structured, it deserves an upvote, even if I still disagree af…

Your very comment is now downvoted but not silenced. We all see it, as we do every grey comment, as long as one works their way down the comments page. Not every comment is going to be agreed with and rise above the fold, and that’s ok.

Re: Tell HN: Announcing tomhow as a public moderator

#254

Post by Tadpole9181 » Wed, Apr 02, 2025, 8:54 PM UTC

kstrauser wrote: post #166

ceejayoz wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes you're right, sometimes they are. Sometimes, as the Rick & Morty quote goes, "Your boos mean nothing, I've seen what makes you cheer."

For sure, but then the followup question is "do I want to spend my time and energy around a bunch of people I think are wrong?'

Often times, you comment not to change the mind of the person you're replying to, but to provide a rebuttal for the readers at home. If nobody challenges problematic ideology or corrects misinformation, it can spread like a disease.

Re: Tell HN: Announcing tomhow as a public moderator

#255

Post by gameshot911 » Wed, Apr 02, 2025, 8:56 PM UTC

codetrotter wrote: post #160

In the classic tradition of thinking that “dang” is pronounced “dang” and not “Dan G.” I propose that we read “tomhow” as “Tomh Ow”.

> dang” is pronounced “dang” and not “Dan G.”

WAIT WHAT?!?

Re: Tell HN: Announcing tomhow as a public moderator

#256

Post by diggan » Wed, Apr 02, 2025, 8:59 PM UTC

palmotea wrote: post #220

> He has been doing HN moderation work for years already and knows the site and its practices inside-out, so the only new thing you'll see is mod comments from Tom showing up in the threads the way mine do. I wonder if there are any other secret moderators.

If you flag, downvote, and/or vouch comments, you're basically already a moderator-lite yourself :)

Re: Tell HN: Announcing tomhow as a public moderator

#257

Post by dragonwriter » Wed, Apr 02, 2025, 9:00 PM UTC

diggan wrote: post #256

palmotea wrote: post #220

> He has been doing HN moderation work for years already and knows the site and its practices inside-out, so the only new thing you'll see is mod comments from Tom showing up in the threads the way mine do. I wonder if there are any other secret moderators.

If you flag, downvote, and/or vouch comments, you're basically already a moderator-lite yourself :)

Upvoting posts has a moderation-like effect (opposed to that of downvoting).

Re: Tell HN: Announcing tomhow as a public moderator

#258

Post by Tadpole9181 » Wed, Apr 02, 2025, 9:00 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #170

bowsamic wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah the flagging is definitely much worse than it used to be. I’ve seen very legitimate LLM critical posts with lots of upvotes and comments flagged

Many people feel that flagging is worse than it used to be, but they don't agree at all on what should or shouldn't be flagged. That makes this feedback less actionable than one might assume. HN gets tons and tons of threads that are critical of LLMs, so it's possible that the ones you're seeing get flagged are just below median quality and/or overly repetitive of previous discussions.

Hey, Dan. I'd be really interested if you could share more about the metrics. As the climate of the world around us has changed, I think a lot of us at least feel flagging has become a cudgel used to silence opposition. Me, for criticism of the current administration. Others, for their views on topics like gender.

Maybe we just care more and notice it about that subject now. Maybe it's always been this way. But while you often leave long comments that go into how these systems work and the struggles with trying to adjust them or understand of it's even necessary (good stuff), I would be fascinated to see a blog post or something where you really give us a talking to about the state of the community and anything y'all have been trying on your end.

Just a thought, obviously, you have a whole job moderating already! Have a good day!

Re: Tell HN: Announcing tomhow as a public moderator

#259

Post by QuantumGood » Wed, Apr 02, 2025, 9:01 PM UTC

tomhow wrote: post #173

Many thanks for the warm welcome, everyone. It’s been a privilege to help support this community and to work alongside dang, who has been a great friend and mentor for many years. It’s a great responsibility, to keep HN a healthy and thriving community, and I’m continually amazed to see all the ways dang puts thought and energy into it. One final note is that it was never part of the negotiations that I was expected…

Thanks in advance, Tom. Never a better time for more smart work in this area.

Re: Tell HN: Announcing tomhow as a public moderator

#260

Post by Raed667 » Wed, Apr 02, 2025, 9:02 PM UTC

palmotea wrote: post #220

> He has been doing HN moderation work for years already and knows the site and its practices inside-out, so the only new thing you'll see is mod comments from Tom showing up in the threads the way mine do. I wonder if there are any other secret moderators.

If you reach 160'000 karma you can see the secret mods