LOL just got kicked out of @ycombinator • Hacker News Board

Re: LOL just got kicked out of @ycombinator

#351

Post by verelo » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 1:57 AM UTC

dang wrote: post #210

The submitted title was "Y Combinator kicks out Paul Biggar over a tweet". That is inaccurate, so in keeping with the HN guidelines (" Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize. " https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ), I've replaced the title with the tweet text. That's the standard thing we do with titles, when people post Twitter links. Much as I'd love to,…

Literally you’re the top comment, and it’s not a short one, and it expresses personal thoughts. Good job doing less not more.

Re: LOL just got kicked out of @ycombinator

#352

Post by dang » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 1:58 AM UTC

neonological wrote: post #325

dang wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I thought HN was purely community driven with only comments being moderated HN is a curated site, always has been, and has never claimed otherwise. It is an interaction between three subsystems: community, software, and moderators. All three are necessary. If you or anyone would like to know more, here are some links to past explanations to start with. If there are still questions after familiarizing yourself with…

>That is obviously not at all what I said. You said, and I quote: "Normally, of course, we'd downweight this sort of petty drama. " So I responded with statement that at its' core means that any biased entity would say this to protect their own reputation regardless of whether it's true or not. I'm not saying what you said isn't true, but given your position there is conflict of interest. This is what someone in your…

You changed what I said into "Of course on the surface you guys say you only downweight petty drama". That was (a) a massive distortion—you can trivially see from https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... that there are many other kinds of downweighting. On top of that, (b) you added snark ("of course") and insinuation ("on the surface") in a way that strikes me as particularly uncharitable.

You've done it again with "Seems reasonable to say, don't trust news about YC on HN", implying that we somehow intervene to distort that, when the truth is that we do exactly the opposite—as I'd just explained in the comment you were replying, as well as on many previous occasions: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu....

Re: LOL just got kicked out of @ycombinator

#353

Post by TaylorAlexander » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 2:01 AM UTC

asquabventured wrote: post #348

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. Really not tooting my own horn but I qualified very early for the vaccine because I am a “farm worker” and while I really do work at a farm and all employees qualified early, I’m actually a robotics engineer with no necessary contact between me and those that tend the fields. I have an isolated office and I work alone. I felt that if I ever decided to get the shot because of my employment as a “farm worker”, t…

Shot in the arm as soon as it is offered saves lives by being one less person that will spread the virus to someone vulnerable.

I’ve been extremely cautious with covid and I do not need to interact with the public beyond quick and careful grocery store visits. It would be better for a front line worker, who is not able to exercise the same level of avoidance, to get it than for me to have gotten it. I also do not live with any immunocompromised people - we are all healthy and under 40 and they work from home - so again it was better for someone who lives with an older person to have gotten it.

Re: LOL just got kicked out of @ycombinator

#354

Post by bebop » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 2:01 AM UTC

dang wrote: post #350

bebop wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your post could have not included: “Much as I'd love to, it's not my place to say why the original title was inaccurate, so I'll just remind you all that there are two or more sides to every story and not everything on Twitter is true.” And “Normally, of course, we would downweight this sort of petty drama.” And could have avoided unhelpful conflict in the threads below. You sort of threw your opinion out wit…

I hear you, but both of those sentences are there for a reason. Without the first I'd be getting lots of "how is it inaccurate?" responses, and without the second I'd be getting protests about moderation practices. My intention was to give enough information (I'm not saying it's a lot) to preempt avalanches of predictable objections. I'm sure I could have done it better, though, because this was far from what Scott a…

I appreciate that this is probably a no win situation. Thanks as always for doing your best and keeping this community healthy.

Re: LOL just got kicked out of @ycombinator

#355

Post by ping_pong » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 2:02 AM UTC

kordlessagain wrote: post #225

bodono wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you post your original message to the forum here too? That way we can know for sure what was said precisely, otherwise it's just he-said / he-said.

Why is it we need to discuss this more? It’s not technical, or interesting. Just a bunch of people gossiping and trying to judge!!

There are a of questions this topics brings up.

It's clarifying whether or not YC is a bunch of white, privileged elitists that have no ethics. Is this behavior endemic within YC? Is YC and dang protecting these founders and trying to brush the behavior under the rug? (the fact that dang isn't hiding the thread bodes well on this aspect) Is this the environment that new founders want to be associated with? Hopefully we can get good answers to all of these.

Lots of interesting questions this topic brings up. I don't think it's just gossip. There was another tweet in that thread about another founder getting kicked out of YC because she dared to speak up against another YC founder. So it sort of begs the question as to what is going on behind all these closed doors.

Re: LOL just got kicked out of @ycombinator

#356

Post by dang » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 2:04 AM UTC

slumpt_ wrote: post #334

dang wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, I think that was probably because your comment was unsubstantive enough that it was unclear what you meant, which probably put it in a worst-case situation. Also, unsubstantiveness attracts downvotes in its own right, especially when it contains traces of snark. Also, your account has quite a history of posting unsubstantive comments—could you please not do that? We're trying for something different here. https…

We can set aside my history and focus on the simple point being made: labeling this issue as "petty drama" speaks volumes . It speaks volumes about you and the values you are espousing for this site and community, and reflects poorly upon YCombinator as an establishment in general. In early March we were at a point in a global pandemic where vaccines were hard to come by in the US and real lives were at risk and chan…

By the time something goes through this many twitterfilters, whatever non-petty quality it may have had to begin with has long been boiled away. It has become a self-licking ice cream cone of internet drama—something that certainly deserves the word 'petty'. Moreover, there was a long history of pettiness preceding this.

We can't set aside your history because (a) you've been breaking the site guidelines repeatedly and (b) we've asked you repeatedly not to do that in the past. If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

Re: LOL just got kicked out of @ycombinator

#357

Post by throwaaskjdfh » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 2:10 AM UTC

dfabulich wrote: post #300

mbgerring wrote: post #274

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So just so everyone has the full context: Oakland opened up its vaccination sites to more people on a shorter timeline than the rest of the state, in certain ZIP codes with disproportionately poor residents, in order to get vaccines to those disproportionately poor residents. I know this because this is how several of my friends who live in West Oakland got vaccinated ahead of the eligibility opening up in the rest o…

I got vaccinated at one of these West Oakland "first come, first serve" vaccination sites back in March. They were administering J&J vaccines (which do not thaw) with no residency check, and not even a poster saying "please don't line up unless you live in this neighborhood." No statement of intent at all. Others standing in line asked coordinators walking the line, "Am I eligible here?" and the coordinators responde…

EDIT: I was mistaken here, corrected by a response below.

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I don't think there was a way for the public health authorities to create an explicit rule about neighborhood residency without inviting lawsuits. The best they could do is place vaccination centers in more convenient locations for underserved communities, and hope that it could raise the rate of vaccination in the vicinity.

I think there were people assuming that if it wasn't against the explicit rules to commute there to be vaccinated, it must be OK, even though it might (in the event of limited supply) undermine the effort to raise vaccination rates in that specific area.

Re: LOL just got kicked out of @ycombinator

#358

Post by kjs3 » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 2:11 AM UTC

dang wrote: post #210

The submitted title was "Y Combinator kicks out Paul Biggar over a tweet". That is inaccurate, so in keeping with the HN guidelines (" Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize. " https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ), I've replaced the title with the tweet text. That's the standard thing we do with titles, when people post Twitter links. Much as I'd love to,…

There is an 'in' crowd, for which the rules protect but don't constrain, and an 'out' crowd for which the rules constrain but do not protect.

I'm paraphrasing.

Re: LOL just got kicked out of @ycombinator

#359

Post by AlexCoventry » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 2:11 AM UTC

jollybean wrote: post #84

angry_octet wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It has a real "snitches get stiches" vibe to it. You have no expectation of privacy if you announce (let alone advocate for, or instruct how-to) behaviour against public health policy _during_a_pandemic_. The contrast with people who have been working hard to match people with appointments couldn't be more stark.

It does indeed have that vibe, and irrespective of what actually happened - it makes him look bad. If he was indeed talking about inappropriately skipping the line, then this guy is a bad actor. But I should point out that we don't have any idea - the situation could have been very misrepresented - and he could have done nothing wrong. But given the public information ... this Tweet is going to come of 'Snitches Get…

It's hard to pack thoughtful and mature communication into 280 characters.

Re: LOL just got kicked out of @ycombinator

#360

Post by roenxi » Sat, Jun 05, 2021, 2:12 AM UTC

bebop wrote: post #354

dang wrote: post #350

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hear you, but both of those sentences are there for a reason. Without the first I'd be getting lots of "how is it inaccurate?" responses, and without the second I'd be getting protests about moderation practices. My intention was to give enough information (I'm not saying it's a lot) to preempt avalanches of predictable objections. I'm sure I could have done it better, though, because this was far from what Scott a…

I appreciate that this is probably a no win situation. Thanks as always for doing your best and keeping this community healthy.

There isn't a loss. There is nothing wrong with adding some sass to the comment if the moderator hat comes off. It'd be unreasonable to expect him to turn a blind eye to a situation where he has more at stake and better information than 80% of the comments.

Dan's opinion is only different from the average HN commentor because it leads to people being banned. As long as there is a careful separation of personal opinion from an official moderator view there isn't anything to take note of from one personal opinion.