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The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News (2019)

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Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News (2019)

#111

Post by alexchamberlain »

A4ET8a8uTh0 wrote: post #103
alexchamberlain wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Somewhat ironically that hashtag seems to be dominated by a few people; that being said, they have identified people saying outrageous things. Probably worth flagging rather than increasing its visibility?

Can you elaborate on identifying people? I typically try to keep things sufficiently vague, but I also do hold somewhat strong opinions on a few subjects.

Sorry, that was careless language; I meant they have identified some outrageous comments - most (if not all) the screenshot exclude the username.

Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News (2019)

#112

Post by mcguire »

"For decades, the phrase “Eternal September” has been used to describe the tipping point for a message board or online community—the inclusion, or invasion, of new users who dramatically change the existing subculture. (The term originated in September, 1993, after America Online made Usenet, a decades-old message-board system, accessible to many of its members, who were new to the Internet.)"

Actually, it predates that; referring to when a new crop of undergraduates would arrive at schools on the Internet.

Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News (2019)

#113

Post by mrspeaker »

rathel wrote: post #104
doc_gunthrop wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what impressed me when I first came across HN - the signal-to-noise ratio. The comments sections were always filled with thoughtfully written comments that provided useful insights into interesting topics. Thank you @dang for your diligence and commitment to the task.

For me the noise is still there, even if it takes another form. Jokes, puns and nastiness are swapped for hacker-y style rants (we know how idiosyncratic many of hackers are) or people who talk about things they lack the knowledge of. Ironically, under front page HN submissions where comments would give some context, often there are none. Who upvoted them all the way to the front page? People who want to feel intelli…

Did you just do a hacker-y style rant?

Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News (2019)

#114

Post by juped »

mcguire wrote: post #112

" For decades, the phrase “Eternal September” has been used to describe the tipping point for a message board or online community—the inclusion, or invasion, of new users who dramatically change the existing subculture. (The term originated in September, 1993, after America Online made Usenet, a decades-old message-board system, accessible to many of its members, who were new to the Internet.) " Actually, it predates…

Those Septembers weren't eternal.

Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News (2019)

#115

Post by ben_w »

mcguire wrote: post #112

" For decades, the phrase “Eternal September” has been used to describe the tipping point for a message board or online community—the inclusion, or invasion, of new users who dramatically change the existing subculture. (The term originated in September, 1993, after America Online made Usenet, a decades-old message-board system, accessible to many of its members, who were new to the Internet.) " Actually, it predates…

I thought Eternal September was coined in comparison to the temporary September of new students?

Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News (2019)

#116

Post by [deleted] »

dang wrote: post #88
InitialLastName wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Relatedly (since we've got you here), rather than blocking bad users it would be nice to be able to tag specific users in a way that shows up on the comment feed. For example, there are a few users whose comments consistently impress me with their depth, and whose commentary in a thread often flags a deeper conversation on a topic. It might just be because I have a terrible memory for usernames, but it would be nice…

Do you mean a private list of your own tags that the UI would then display to you? Interesting idea.

[deleted]

Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News (2019)

#117

Post by rectang »

mdpm wrote: post #94
dang wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not a concrete suggestion, but rather a meta-strategy for getting those. Alas, I think it would run up against hard economics super quickly. Forums like HN aren't big businesses, and efforts to make them into big businesses exert pressures under which they turn into something else. This is probably the most important thing for understanding HN, actually: it ended up in a sweet spot where it makes sense for YC…

Agreed on not creating silos. Adding User 'flair' is perhaps a viable option, where users can simply tag other users with a short description. That enables both properties - avoiding discourse you find troubling, and allowing users to highlight those that they find enlightening. Freedom of speech works well when paired with freedom to listen. Removing content (even if only from a user's view) only deepens the filter…

> Agreed on not creating silos.

There's one big silo, with the people who have stayed within it, and the people who have left outside it.

There aren't very many women here, which I assume is because of how the HN conversations about issues important to women tend to play out. This isn't an HN-specific problem, it's industry-wide. But I didn't go into software until my 30s, so the gender skew of the industry feels alien and alienating to me.

I would ditch HN if I discovered another tech community which was more inviting to women. I don't care if I start to miss out on the HN-resident perspectives on gender which shock me, because there are other perspectives which are more important to me which I'm already missing out on.

Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News (2019)

#118

Post by crispyporkbites »

echelon wrote: post #32

Thanks dang! You've helped keep HN readable, corrected countless title and link errors, and prevented heated discussions from devolving into fights. I also am super thankful for your help getting my "Show HN" post to the front page. We all appreciate you.

What help is available to get show hn posts to the front page?

Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News (2019)

#119

Post by grayclhn »

dang wrote: post #102
chrisandchips wrote: post #97

Dang's done a super great job, especially recently with some huge threads related to the election. I would like to raise one point that's tangentially related: why is it not easier to find a page explaining the community guidelines ? AFAIK you have to look them up yourself. The navbar has links to new, threads, past, comments, ask, show, jobs and submit, but none of them even give a clear redirect link to get to the…

They're in the footer on every page. Not enough?

I've been reading this site for almost 10 years and never noticed them until you just pointed it out. I don't think many people look at the footer. :)

(They're also not in the footer of the comment page and a link in the otherwise empty header could be useful for new users.)

Re: The Lonely Work of Moderating Hacker News (2019)

#120

Post by dang »

Tossrock wrote: post #92
dang wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not a concrete suggestion, but rather a meta-strategy for getting those. Alas, I think it would run up against hard economics super quickly. Forums like HN aren't big businesses, and efforts to make them into big businesses exert pressures under which they turn into something else. This is probably the most important thing for understanding HN, actually: it ended up in a sweet spot where it makes sense for YC…

Since you're soliciting them, here's a few concrete suggestions: - Avatars. A consistent, recognizable image can go a long way from transforming a faceless internet post into something closer to a person you recognize and would hesitate to harm. With enough time and exposure, usernames can work for this (everyone recognizes when tptacek, or moxie, or you post), but avatars supercharge it. People hate changes to the s…

I don't think we'd go for #1 because it's core to HN that it's a text-only site. And #2 is too shaming. We've found over the years that underpunishing people (relative to what they expect) is more effective. There's a nice user report about that somewhere in the current thread. (edit: actually several now, which is pretty cool)

#3 I think is a good suggestion though. We should have some means whereby users can exalt something good, not just flag something bad. The challenge is to make it different enough from the upvoting system so it didn't just turn into a variation of the same mechanism.

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