An Update on Hacker News • Hacker News Board

Re: An Update on Hacker News

#281

Post by jack-r-abbit » Mon, Nov 10, 2014, 11:14 PM UTC

lotharbot wrote: post #180

zanny wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My position is that downvotes should not exist. There are three ways to view posts and comments: A. you agree with it, and appreciate it, so you upvote it to give it more visibility because that is how this whole system works - popular stuff should rise to the top, and an upvote is a measure of popularity. If you see popular stuff but have something to add, you will usually upvote and comment on it. B. a comment or p…

One thing we try to discourage on HN is "me too" or "disagree" posts that don't have much more content. The presence of upvote and downvote buttons means that those comments don't get made, because votes serve that purpose instead. There's still room to start a discussion if you have a specific point to make (and the desire to make it) about the problems with someone's comments. Those discussions do tend to happen wh…

Without a downvote button, offensive or mean comments would easily fall under the "B" option and get flagged (and I believe they should now anyway even with the downvote button).

Obviously wrong or stupid comments would probably sink to the bottom pretty quickly anyway if people were upvoting the stuff that should be upvoted.

Re: An Update on Hacker News

#282

Post by wldcordeiro » Mon, Nov 10, 2014, 11:17 PM UTC

vectorpush wrote: post #111

How does HN's moderation staff feel about users who are dead, completely oblivious to it, but who continue to post, sometimes for years after the fact without any kind of warning that they are wasting their time. Sometimes I check the comment history of these dead posters; 80% of the time it appears like they are a genuine troll who was correctly moderated out of the community, however, a significant portion of the t…

I had an account get "hellbanned" a while ago (it was an account with less than 20 karma to begin with) and after some stupid comment on my part I got downvoted significantly. Didn't even realize it had happened until someone reached out to me via Twitter informing me that my account was "hellbanned".

Re: An Update on Hacker News

#283

Post by lotharbot » Mon, Nov 10, 2014, 11:22 PM UTC

amyhoy wrote: post #280

dang wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ever notice how people who make claims about why they got banned never provide links to the posts in question? That's because their claims are nearly always false. If users could look at the actual record, their perennial sob story of perfectly reasonable behavior struck down by bullying censors would evaporate. So they make new accounts and post linkless statements designed to be unanswerable. We don't ban people be…

Hi there. Why not tell me why I was hellbanned then? Here's my comment history. Such bullying, so horrible, wow: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ahoyhere The only conclusion is that HN hellbans dissent. I'm about as far from a troll as you can get. It's your platform; do what you want. But don't lie about it.

It appears the last activity you posted was in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6472749

You called Alex (whose friend had died and he didn't find out for two years) a "shitty friend" and said he didn't "think of, or care for, others".

I don't know if that's worthy of a hellban. But I do know I wouldn't consider the offending comments mere "dissent".

Re: An Update on Hacker News

#284

Post by amyhoy » Mon, Nov 10, 2014, 11:24 PM UTC

amyhoy wrote: post #280

dang wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ever notice how people who make claims about why they got banned never provide links to the posts in question? That's because their claims are nearly always false. If users could look at the actual record, their perennial sob story of perfectly reasonable behavior struck down by bullying censors would evaporate. So they make new accounts and post linkless statements designed to be unanswerable. We don't ban people be…

Hi there. Why not tell me why I was hellbanned then? Here's my comment history. Such bullying, so horrible, wow: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ahoyhere The only conclusion is that HN hellbans dissent. I'm about as far from a troll as you can get. It's your platform; do what you want. But don't lie about it.

Oooh, is being saucy or mildly disagreeable not allowed either? I get the hint.

Re: An Update on Hacker News

#285

Post by amyhoy » Mon, Nov 10, 2014, 11:27 PM UTC

lotharbot wrote: post #283

amyhoy wrote: post #280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi there. Why not tell me why I was hellbanned then? Here's my comment history. Such bullying, so horrible, wow: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=ahoyhere The only conclusion is that HN hellbans dissent. I'm about as far from a troll as you can get. It's your platform; do what you want. But don't lie about it.

It appears the last activity you posted was in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6472749 You called Alex (whose friend had died and he didn't find out for two years) a "shitty friend" and said he didn't "think of, or care for, others". I don't know if that's worthy of a hellban. But I do know I wouldn't consider the offending comments mere "dissent".

Neither of your things in "quotes" are things that I said. The "shitty friend" was alexcap's own words. The phrase "think of, or care for, others" didn't show up in my comment at all.

I didn't call him a shitty friend. He wrote, "Now you’re probably thinking I’m a real shitty friend" after his explanation of the events — which I quoted, in quotes, very clearly a direct quote from his own words — and I wrote "Yes" to answer the question. 95% of my comment was advice for people on what to do in the situation that the friend is reaching out to them as that friend did, who got ignored and later died and that person didn't know for years.

If you write an essay about something you did that you think was bad, and post it to Medium, and post it to HN, and then say "You probably think I did something bad," is it reaaaally so controversial to comment with "Yes, I agree, I think you did something bad"?

Also, if you thought that was my last comment, maybe you don't see my actual last exchange? It was about my bootstrapping conference and upcoming web site. Perhaps it's truly hell banned as in not visible? It was this:

http://skitch-replacement.s3.amazonaws.com/ahoyhere_s_commen...

Re: An Update on Hacker News

#286

Post by DanBC » Mon, Nov 10, 2014, 11:28 PM UTC

cm2012 wrote: post #232

vectorpush wrote: post #111

How does HN's moderation staff feel about users who are dead, completely oblivious to it, but who continue to post, sometimes for years after the fact without any kind of warning that they are wasting their time. Sometimes I check the comment history of these dead posters; 80% of the time it appears like they are a genuine troll who was correctly moderated out of the community, however, a significant portion of the t…

Apparently, this is the comment that got my old account banned: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4342935 . I'm not sure though, it's just the last one on the profile before they go dead. I did like my old account.

Pure guesswork: combinations of the several ask HNs and the word jewelery triggered the spam filter.

Did you email hn to ask why you were banned?

Re: An Update on Hacker News

#287

Post by madrobby » Mon, Nov 10, 2014, 11:28 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #135

throwit99 wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had this happen to me when I critiqued a YC backed company. Had a few thousand in 'meaningless internet karma points'. You pretty soon realise after a few further comments anyway, so I doubt it's actually effective. It's pretty mean spirited though - generally a "douchebag" move. It'd be like having a bad employee, but instead of firing him, or discussing his work, just don't bother paying him any more. After being…

Ever notice how people who make claims about why they got banned never provide links to the posts in question? That's because their claims are nearly always false. If users could look at the actual record, their perennial sob story of perfectly reasonable behavior struck down by bullying censors would evaporate. So they make new accounts and post linkless statements designed to be unanswerable. We don't ban people be…

Ohai, I've been hell-banned and don't know why. I guess as someone successfully running a software business _and_ being a well-known open source person I have to place in a forum for people who want to run successful internet businesses and are into tech.

Re: An Update on Hacker News

#288

Post by michaelochurch » Mon, Nov 10, 2014, 11:34 PM UTC

dllthomas wrote: post #268

facepalm wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

slowbanning is a thing, I remember an official announcement about it. Of course my memory might be fallible.

Like I said, that's my impression. I'm just saying the differential alone doesn't show it. A tiny differential is expected. A large differential shows either a slowban or poor engineering.

Mine are more than an order of magnitude. If I recall correctly, numbers were around 200 ms in incognito mode and 10+ seconds when logged in.

Re: An Update on Hacker News

#289

Post by DanBC » Mon, Nov 10, 2014, 11:37 PM UTC

madrobby wrote: post #287

dang wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ever notice how people who make claims about why they got banned never provide links to the posts in question? That's because their claims are nearly always false. If users could look at the actual record, their perennial sob story of perfectly reasonable behavior struck down by bullying censors would evaporate. So they make new accounts and post linkless statements designed to be unanswerable. We don't ban people be…

Ohai, I've been hell-banned and don't know why. I guess as someone successfully running a software business _and_ being a well-known open source person I have to place in a forum for people who want to run successful internet businesses and are into tech.

What account was hell banned?

Re: An Update on Hacker News

#290

Post by lotharbot » Mon, Nov 10, 2014, 11:38 PM UTC

cm2012 wrote: post #232

vectorpush wrote: post #111

How does HN's moderation staff feel about users who are dead, completely oblivious to it, but who continue to post, sometimes for years after the fact without any kind of warning that they are wasting their time. Sometimes I check the comment history of these dead posters; 80% of the time it appears like they are a genuine troll who was correctly moderated out of the community, however, a significant portion of the t…

Apparently, this is the comment that got my old account banned: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4342935 . I'm not sure though, it's just the last one on the profile before they go dead. I did like my old account.

I was completely confused by why you were hellbanned. Then I stopped looking at comments and looked at your submissions:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4335811

I'm guessing that got caught in the spam filter for use of the words "jewelry" and some of the other keywords in the Amazon link. This is one of the unfortunate side effects of running a startup that happens to be in a field that generates a lot of (affiliate) spam.