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Dang is a terrible moderator who engages in ideological censorship

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Dang is a terrible moderator who engages in ideological censorship

#1

Post by bonetopick »

I'm sorry, but after trying yet again to contribute and yet again being slapped around I've finally had it.

Dang, you are the single worst moderator I've ever had the displeasure of having to deal with. You regularly ban, throttle, shadowban, and otherwise censor used for purely ideological reasons while claiming that their posts are "unsubstantive". The entire structure of HN does inevitably lead to an echo chamber of people who are at times incredibly lacking in self awareness, but your actions only exacerbate this problem.

Anyway, this post is giong to be downvoted, flagged, and probably deleted with the account banned and maybe a weak redirection to an email account. God forbid we discuss the state of the site and moderation publicly.

Re: Dang is a terrible moderator who engages in ideological censorship

#2

Post by dang »

Why don't you supply links so readers can make up their own minds?

It sucks to get moderated, and often feels like the mods are doing it because they disagree with you. Whatever your ideology is, though, I guarantee you there are users on the other side complaining that yours is the one we secretly agree with and theirs is the one we're censoring.

Re: Dang is a terrible moderator who engages in ideological censorship

#3

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

Personally, I like the moderation here. It strikes the difficult balance between allowing discussion of sensitive topics while preventing the forum equivalent of descending into all-out verbal Armageddon about as well as any humans possibly could.

Bending to whatever ideology bonetopick wants to push, be it right, left or otherwise, would probably get equally angry posts from others so I encourage the moderators to give this post the minimal attention it deserves.

Re: Dang is a terrible moderator who engages in ideological censorship

#4

Post by roetlich »

dang wrote: post #2

Why don't you supply links so readers can make up their own minds? It sucks to get moderated, and often feels like the mods are doing it because they disagree with you. Whatever your ideology is, though, I guarantee you there are users on the other side complaining that yours is the one we secretly agree with and theirs is the one we're censoring.

Hi dang, thank you for all the work you do as a moderator!

Without the good moderation HN would be a very different platform.

Re: Dang is a terrible moderator who engages in ideological censorship

#5

Post by yesenadam »

You provide no evidence at all. Like a single link to what you're talking about. (Why is that?)

You say you've had it, yet here you are still.

There seems quite a lot of discussion of the "state of the site and moderation" on here, but you act like it's forbidden or something.

Re: Dang is a terrible moderator who engages in ideological censorship

#6

Post by dang »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #3

Personally, I like the moderation here. It strikes the difficult balance between allowing discussion of sensitive topics while preventing the forum equivalent of descending into all-out verbal Armageddon about as well as any humans possibly could. Bending to whatever ideology bonetopick wants to push, be it right, left or otherwise, would probably get equally angry posts from others so I encourage the moderators to g…

We tend to leave posts like the OP up. This one was killed by a software filter as well as heavily flagged by users, but I turned all of that off. That way we don't get accused of killing it for sinister reasons, but also the occasional thread like this can act as a pressure valve to air grievances and give us a read on how the community is feeling. My sense is that the bulk of the community does not share the feeling that moderation here is so biased or vindictive. But if that's wrong, we definitely need to know.

Re: Dang is a terrible moderator who engages in ideological censorship

#8

Post by matt_the_bass »

dang wrote: post #6
ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #3

Personally, I like the moderation here. It strikes the difficult balance between allowing discussion of sensitive topics while preventing the forum equivalent of descending into all-out verbal Armageddon about as well as any humans possibly could. Bending to whatever ideology bonetopick wants to push, be it right, left or otherwise, would probably get equally angry posts from others so I encourage the moderators to g…

We tend to leave posts like the OP up. This one was killed by a software filter as well as heavily flagged by users, but I turned all of that off. That way we don't get accused of killing it for sinister reasons, but also the occasional thread like this can act as a pressure valve to air grievances and give us a read on how the community is feeling. My sense is that the bulk of the community does not share the feelin…

I wish more people IRL would follow this advice.

Re: Dang is a terrible moderator who engages in ideological censorship

#10

Post by freehunter »

dang wrote: post #2

Why don't you supply links so readers can make up their own minds? It sucks to get moderated, and often feels like the mods are doing it because they disagree with you. Whatever your ideology is, though, I guarantee you there are users on the other side complaining that yours is the one we secretly agree with and theirs is the one we're censoring.

I've been spoken to by dang many times and I can count on one finger the time I've actually disagreed with the warning I received. Every time dang has stopped by one of my comments to remind me of the rules, I believe it has made me a more thoughtful participant in the conversations.

It does suck getting moderated and it does feel like I'm being picked on, especially if it's a heated conversation. But for as busy as HN is, it still feels cleaner than a lot of other places on the web. I really appreciate that and it's why I keep coming back.

For the OP: there are many places like HN around the Internet with different moderation policies. Sometimes when I feel like I need to take a break from HN for whatever reason, I move to those other sites for a while. There might be sites out there you agree with more?

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