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Thank you to dang and sctb

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Thank you to dang and sctb

#101

Post by dieterrams »

pvg wrote: post #100
dieterrams wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I vouched for (undeaded) your comment, since I think the flagging/downvoting runs contrary to the principles of discourse we're (at least implicitly) celebrating here, smelling of tribalism/favoritism. Just because you view someone favorably, and someone else claims something negative about that person, doesn't mean you just get to flagbomb them into oblivion. The right response here is simply to ask for further subs…

smelling of tribalism/favoritism. Downvoting something for complaining about votes is fairly normal. Downvote baiting on top is flagworthy. I imagine lots of people quite sensibly apply these as a matter of course.

One imagines they do. I'm not sure that's what's going on here, though.

Re: Thank you to dang and sctb

#102

Post by tinkerteller »

While I know how hard these people work, I really cannot support your enthusiasm. The users are often banned at slightest opportunities and they are not even informed what they did wrong or the fact that they just got banned. They would just get dreaded “your are posting too fast” error and all their future posts and comments are automatically de-ranked forever with no recourse or appeal to these higher powers. I felt this was very similar to being placed on no-fly list which we as hacker community deride so much as infallible authoritarianism.

As HN community is more and more becoming group think (watch how this post will be downvoted) and laying these extra layers of super powers punishing anyone ad hock doesn’t help. In few posts when I wrote non-popular opinion very respectfully these folks expressed their displeasure. Mods should NEVER do that.

The sign of such required moderators is indicator of how broken the algorithms driving HN. Instead of fixing these fundamental tech issues, the powers behind HN have doubled down on exercising heavy handed dictatorships. The least they could have done but never have bothered is to at least tell people they punish what they did wrong, how do they fix it and get back in community. The best they could have done would b ego open source HN and have honest discussions about various issues we have as community so more brain power is available to solve these issues. That’s the hacker way.

Update: Great! Group thinkers are already getting busy at casting downvotes.

Re: Thank you to dang and sctb

#103

Post by tinkerteller »

tomcam wrote: post #76

They have both chastised me for "funny" (to me) or intemperate comments. Sometimes I agree, sometimes I don't. But I have never, never felt that they had anything but the interest of the HN community as a whole. I have never, ever seen any online community moderated better or even remotely close to as well as HN. I am deeply thankful for HN. It is a surprisingly important part of my life, almost solely because of the…

You are entitled to your opinions but your assertions are blantantly wrong: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18514873

Re: Thank you to dang and sctb

#104

Post by tinkerteller »

wild_preference wrote: post #17
comesee wrote: post #9

dang called me a troll after I simply asked him exactly what it was about my comment that warranted it being removed. So, no thanks actually.

Looking at your screenshot you post elsewhere ( https://ibb.co/hoSMHK ), I have to agree with them insofar as you need to know when to quit. Running a forum is hard work and everyone wants to devolve every mod decision into rules lawyering, like "well, then why wasn't this specific thing in the rules?" No, there can't be a rule for literally everything, so you're just going to have to be an adult and take it on the c…

While I don’t agree with @comesee, I don’t see his comments are offensive/vulgar language. Even the parent comment states very short and simple fact:

> dang called me a troll after I simply asked him exactly what it was about my comment that warranted it being removed.

Why do you think this tiny little comment worthy of immediate massive downvotes so that no one even can upvote it any more?

Is it your expectation that people commenting here must submit themselves to popular opinion? Is diverging from group think or disagreeing with mods punishable by immediate shadow banning?

Re: Thank you to dang and sctb

#106

Post by yesenadam »

tinkerteller wrote: post #103
tomcam wrote: post #76

They have both chastised me for "funny" (to me) or intemperate comments. Sometimes I agree, sometimes I don't. But I have never, never felt that they had anything but the interest of the HN community as a whole. I have never, ever seen any online community moderated better or even remotely close to as well as HN. I am deeply thankful for HN. It is a surprisingly important part of my life, almost solely because of the…

You are entitled to your opinions but your assertions are blantantly wrong: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18514873

Even assuming everything you say is 100% right, that wouldn't make any of those 'assertions' wrong, it seems to me.

Re: Thank you to dang and sctb

#107

Post by nolok »

black-tea wrote: post #105

I do not post my thoughts on certain topics any more because I know I'll get banned for it. So you can thank them for your echo chamber.

I have plenty of contrarian opinion on things, such as thinking Tesla is massively overvalued and their autopilot a scam, or my views on apple, etc... And while I may be down voted when posting them never ever have I feared a ban.

Maybe to find the issue you should pay less attention to your opinion and more to how you express it. Disagreeing with people is okay, even on the Internet there isn't always a side that's right and one that's wrong.

Re: Thank you to dang and sctb

#108

Post by JamesBarney »

gpvos wrote: post #68
coldtea wrote: post #30

Dang has done a very good job I must say -- haven't noticed sctb, which means he did a good job as well, not drawing attention to the moderation (which is what happens when it's done badly).

sctb is a bit newer (since about a year or so?).

4+ years actually :)

Re: Thank you to dang and sctb

#109

Post by nolok »

tomcam wrote: post #76

They have both chastised me for "funny" (to me) or intemperate comments. Sometimes I agree, sometimes I don't. But I have never, never felt that they had anything but the interest of the HN community as a whole. I have never, ever seen any online community moderated better or even remotely close to as well as HN. I am deeply thankful for HN. It is a surprisingly important part of my life, almost solely because of the…

Generally very much enjoy the moderation here (enough liberty to let side things slide when needed, enough control that it remains of good quality), but in terms of community that is made to produce quality content through efficient moderation, the benevolent dictators of askhistorians are still far ahead of anything else though. The content of that sub would be worth paying a subscription for.

Re: Thank you to dang and sctb

#110

Post by telltruth »

jvns wrote: post #18

as someone whose writing ends up on here from time to time, I really appreciate the HN mods' work to keep discussion on topic & constructive. It's obviously a tough job and every time I've emailed them with a concern they've been very helpful.

I am a huge fan of your writings but as a firm supporter of freedom of speech, I loath banning people for what they say. There are obviously exceptions like supporting violence or racism of any kind. Strong language and opinions are perfectly fine as long as it is written in PG rated language. However as evident in this thread (scroll to the bottom, read washed out greyed comments), a lot of the banning here seem to happen due to difference of opinion. I am insterested what sort of comments bothered you and how the mods helped you ban those people. Any sample comments would help understand this new fact that authors can engage directly with mods to suppress dialog they may feel unwanted.
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