Earlier quoted context omitted.
> > Hacker News is moderated mainly by dang aka Dan Gackle (pronounced ‘Gackley’). He’s not of asian descent > ??? Is it common that people think he is Asian for some reason? What a strange paragraph to include... "Dang" is a surname in Vietnam, China, and elsewhere [1], which has led to subthreads like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20643150 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25053380 in which, yes, peop…
Cue the “You’re not Chinese?!?” joke from Seinfeld…
Open secrets about Hacker News
191–200 of 210 posts
Re: Open secrets about Hacker News
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why not? I'd like to see them. I also think that if you're going to make grand claims like that, you should include links so that readers can make up their own minds.
Just in recent memory: Anything relating to the scam MMO known as Dreamworld that Y combinator funded, and how its funding was possibly due to nepotism. Anything relating to the admin of KiwiFarm's rebuttal [1] of Byuu's attacks on his forum or how her suicide was proven fake. [1] https://kiwifarms.net/threads/my-response-regarding-byuu-nea... There are others but either I can't remember them right now or I don't hav…
You're off on the first one. There was a lot of discussion:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27319457 - May 2021 (238 comments)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26898266 - April 2021 (195 comments)
Not only did we not censor that, I recall holding back on moderating it. We moderate HN less, not more, when YC or a YC-funded startup is involved (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...).
You're right about the second case - we moderated that as not on-topic for HN.
Re: Open secrets about Hacker News
#193My front page metaphor:
You’re taking off in a plane, down the runway
If you get clicks / comments you get lift
Not enough of them, you run out of time, hit the end of the runway- crash and burn
If you get off the ground you may go far but only if you keep getting lift from all those click/comments
Re: Open secrets about Hacker News
#194Without getting to robotic: given how I also think dang is awesome, has anyone ever tried to compile of list of tactics dang employs to receive such high praise by almost everyone on the site? Meaning, like some sort of case studies that map back to higher order principles/values he's acting on.
If you read through dang's comments he is very articulate about his values and tactics. There was also this recent self-referential article linking to some particularly incisive comments between another commenter and dang, with associated discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28853335
Re: Open secrets about Hacker News
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm always amazed by how attentive dang is. I think he's a huge part of why this community is somewhere I visit multiple times per day. Thank you, dang!
I've often wondered if dang is more than one person!
Just one person with a lot of keyboard shortcuts.
Re: Open secrets about Hacker News
#196I wish some of this information was in the FAQ.
What specifically?
Honestly, everything! I just think that, if it's on your site, it should be in your voice.
I've always wanted to know a bit about the algorithms putting, and then keeping, stories on the front page.
I also understand if there are certain details you don't want to call attention to because you don't want others gaming the system.
Re: Open secrets about Hacker News
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just assumed he had some intense business interests involving trade with China. He has had a heavy moderation hand when people are critical of the CCP or for example what was formerly thought of as the conspiracy theory about COVIDs likely lab leak origin. He seems to have come around a little bit on this maybe he read about the Uighurs or who knows.
It's true that I/we come down heavily on nationalistic flamewar, slurs, and groundless insinuations about spies and shills and bots and manipulators and all that kind of thing. But this isn't related to China—it follows clearly from the site guidelines ( https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ) and is the same whichever country or group is at issue. Guidelines-breaking comments do frequently appear about Ch…
And I agree with you enforcing the flameware rule because if that's not done HN won't be a discussion forum it'll be a cesspool of hate like Twitter or Facebook
Re: Open secrets about Hacker News
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
Something not mentioned in either article is how karma is handled on submissions. 1 comment upvote = 1 karma point, but 1 submission upvote isn't. E.g. this [0] post got 286 points but the submitter only has 118 karma. Also, what's the deal with the "prev" and "next" buttons that just appeared in the last few minutes? [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28996500
I suspect that I might be part of the reason for the prev and next buttons. HN has bad accessibility when it comes to screen readers and following the parent/child relationship between comments. Some time ago I answered to the wrong person for the wrong reason and a commenter said that they will ask the HN staff for a solution. If my case was not unique, those comments might be the answer. In terms of accessibility,…
I don't think it is anyone in particular, it is hard for everyone to follow threads where there is an extended subthread. This makes it easy to follow the discussion you care about when a subthread goes on a tangent you don't care about (or flamewar, etc.). I am super excited to see it and would have missed it for a while if not for this discussion.
Edit: Oh yeah, there has been that tiny collapse button for a while, I somehow never got into the habit of using that one and forget it is there. I wish there was a setting to use the words "up vote" "down vote" and "collapse" rather than needing to pixel hunt :/.
Re: Open secrets about Hacker News
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think it is hard to pick clear examples. It is harder to pick clear policies for examples that end up in some gray area.
Sure, but the parent was implying that if we reject some content is because we don't want our mind changed. A forum should have a scope/topic and it should reject off-topic posts. I love subreddits with clear rules, then you don't see articles or comments that go in tangents, memes or american or international politics. The moderators can decide the gray area after user report. So trying to post some COVID or politic…
The parent actually didn't refer to off-topic posts. It referred to posts that "challenge our beliefs, values, opinions or prejudices".
Re: Open secrets about Hacker News
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
I was disagreeing with the premise that Hacker News is, or should be, very narrow in scope. Though I'll grant you that there are certainly degrees to this. There are regularly posts that make me wonder why they were posted to HN when I first see them here - and yet, these often manage to enrich my day. There are risks to making too many rules about who gets to be a member in your club.
There are risks to making too many rules about who gets to be a member in your club. And no risks in being too open about who gets to be a member of your club?
Of course there are, but it can be hard to keep in mind what one is trying to achieve. It is easy to think you are doing one thing while really living by a different set of principles.
For instance I've worked for companies (at least two) where, the set of goals for the hiring process, and what was actually practiced, were pointing in somewhat different directions. In the end it really came down to "how like us is the candidate". All while sailing under a "diversity is good" flag, being convinced that we lived our values, and (in one case) increasingly experiencing the problems stemming from a hardening monoculture. What happens when you try to resolve that situation is, to put it carefully, "interesting".