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Thank you to dang and sctb

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Thank you to dang and sctb

#41

Post by otterley »

comesee wrote: post #21
wild_preference wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I disagree, our civilization is built on codified laws, otherwise dictators arbitrarily decide what is allowed and what isn't. Is that justice? You're defending injustice. Rules must be written down and clarified, if I'm wrong so is civilization.

This isn't a public forum; it's a private one. If you don't agree with the opinions of the moderators or the culture here, you're welcome to build a competitive site.

Re: Thank you to dang and sctb

#42

Post by quickthrower2 »

Insanity wrote: post #23

Their nicks don't ring a bell with me, and I've been here for ~2 years. Which probably means that what they're doing is a good thing though, not a lot of flame wars going on! (Or alternatively, I just stay away from articles that might cause need for more moderation). But thanks! Good mods are crucial for a place like this

There is a decent amount of community moderation through downvotes and flags, plus some algos deciding to kill certain comments (they can be seen with the showdead optuon)

Re: Thank you to dang and sctb

#44

Post by cbkeller »

juped wrote: post #28

I think they're good mods, but I don't think this thread is appropriate, nor would I want to have put them in the position of deciding whether to delete it bt making it, as the OP did.

If we want to be technical, I think there's also an argument to be made that moderation of online forms is a hard problem that "good hackers would find interesting" which would arguably satisfy the guideline that

> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting.

and if there's a broad community sense that moderation is particularly good here, there may be something interesting to be learned from that.

In any event, it's (American) thanksgiving and they're about the best mods I've seen!

Re: Thank you to dang and sctb

#45

Post by scott_s »

comesee wrote: post #21
wild_preference wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I disagree, our civilization is built on codified laws, otherwise dictators arbitrarily decide what is allowed and what isn't. Is that justice? You're defending injustice. Rules must be written down and clarified, if I'm wrong so is civilization.

Codified laws are always interpreted by judges. Our legal system is not a computer program; humans are in the loop, and that is a feature, not a bug.

Re: Thank you to dang and sctb

#47

Post by saganus »

juped wrote: post #28

I think they're good mods, but I don't think this thread is appropriate, nor would I want to have put them in the position of deciding whether to delete it bt making it, as the OP did.

The user "sama" (the OP) is Sam Altman, president of Y Combinator.

Re: Thank you to dang and sctb

#48

Post by [deleted] »

obituary_latte wrote: post #38
juped wrote: post #28

I think they're good mods, but I don't think this thread is appropriate, nor would I want to have put them in the position of deciding whether to delete it bt making it, as the OP did.

The odds of the mods deleting it seem pretty slim seeing as the author of the post is their boss man. The thread need not be deleted anyway. Nothing wrong with thanking some of the people that keep the site running smoothly. Especially on a day dedicated to giving thanks.

[deleted]

Re: Thank you to dang and sctb

#49

Post by anticensor »

wild_preference wrote: post #22
comesee wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree, our civilization is built on codified laws, otherwise dictators arbitrarily decide what is allowed and what isn't. Is that justice? You're defending injustice. Rules must be written down and clarified, if I'm wrong so is civilization.

It's a forum with two moderators, not a civilization with a multi-tiered court justice system to interpret the laws. You're going to have to live with that. If you disagree so much, maybe it's time to go somewhere else and spare the rest of us from your permanent, belabored grudge. Like, boo hoo. Seriously. Hopefully you find something else to spend your precious time on earth worrying about.

Well, two active moderators (dang&sctb) and one administrator with unused moderative powers (pg).

Re: Thank you to dang and sctb

#50

Post by jlawson »

wild_preference wrote: post #22
comesee wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree, our civilization is built on codified laws, otherwise dictators arbitrarily decide what is allowed and what isn't. Is that justice? You're defending injustice. Rules must be written down and clarified, if I'm wrong so is civilization.

It's a forum with two moderators, not a civilization with a multi-tiered court justice system to interpret the laws. You're going to have to live with that. If you disagree so much, maybe it's time to go somewhere else and spare the rest of us from your permanent, belabored grudge. Like, boo hoo. Seriously. Hopefully you find something else to spend your precious time on earth worrying about.

Some amount of randomness/inconsistency is to be expected for the reasons you're indicating. As you said, it's just some moderators, not a court system.

But, when that arbitrariness always, always favors one set of viewpoints and suppresses others according to content, then in becomes a problem. That's not randomness, that's bias.

Eg: Person A says controversial opinion X, person B counters with controversial opinion Y. This can lead to a flame war. But which controversial opinion gets censored? The one the mods disagree with. And the excuse it, to prevent a flame war. Which is valid. But it's always the same side of the discussion that gets silenced by power.

The pre-judged outcome really drains the life and value from a lot of the most enervating discussions around here. I'd rather have read "flamewar" (as long as it's not personal) than an enforced echo chamber.

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