Tell HN: Political topics don’t belong here
The recent thread on /r/antiwork is what prompted me to write this. Every time one of these topics is featured it leads to nothing but the same old tired arguments. And yet when I see one of those threads I can’t help but engage with it. I am making an appeal to the administration of HN to change the guidelines to ban political content even if it is somewhat within the realm of intellectual curiosity.
12 comments
In late 2016 HN tried for a week. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13108404
It didn't even last for a few days and made things worse. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25785191
In 2012, I wondered if HN could go 2 months as a meta comment on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3807875 I'm totally not still at least a little exasperated by the few downvotes at the time and the subsequent changes in the 10 years since.
Point is, it's not going to happen. Try to avoid looking at it (I don't even know what antiwork thread you're talking about), and if you look at it try to avoid engaging. If you do engage, do so with a persistent username to resist a throwaway troll (and if you get banned reflect on how you're making things worse) and also maybe things will be a bit better if you try to only engage from a history-looking perspective or even a meta perspective and not per se an arguing perspective.
I once collected a bunch of HN names of people I like reading and put them into some site that tried to intermingle them, sorta like twitter, but I think the site died and anyway without context it's hard to read all at once like a feed and there are other issues. Still, something like your own self-curated list of accounts to be your entry points to either comment trees or whole posts would probably be helpful to avoid seeing stuff you hate engaging in.
It didn't even last for a few days and made things worse. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25785191
In 2012, I wondered if HN could go 2 months as a meta comment on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3807875 I'm totally not still at least a little exasperated by the few downvotes at the time and the subsequent changes in the 10 years since.
Point is, it's not going to happen. Try to avoid looking at it (I don't even know what antiwork thread you're talking about), and if you look at it try to avoid engaging. If you do engage, do so with a persistent username to resist a throwaway troll (and if you get banned reflect on how you're making things worse) and also maybe things will be a bit better if you try to only engage from a history-looking perspective or even a meta perspective and not per se an arguing perspective.
I once collected a bunch of HN names of people I like reading and put them into some site that tried to intermingle them, sorta like twitter, but I think the site died and anyway without context it's hard to read all at once like a feed and there are other issues. Still, something like your own self-curated list of accounts to be your entry points to either comment trees or whole posts would probably be helpful to avoid seeing stuff you hate engaging in.
Thats a bit like asking for Prohibition because of your drinking problem, isn't it? Perhaps you could use your annoyance at the same old things to say something new? I don't think I could; mind you; just an idea.
Each HN post has a hide link for when you don't want to see it anymore.
Mostly political stuff gets flagged already.
If I post an article from 538 it gets flagged.
Every day people flag stupid anti-woke articles. Every day people flag stupid SJW articles. Those people are discriminated against equally. They agree it is unfair and they both post articles complaining that a secretive cabal is flagging their articles, downvoting their comments, hurting their feelings, etc. Those articles get flagged.
Build up your karma, submit interesting articles, and soon you will be empowered to flag for yourself. You won't be able to strike down an article yourself but together with a just a few other users you can.
If I post an article from 538 it gets flagged.
Every day people flag stupid anti-woke articles. Every day people flag stupid SJW articles. Those people are discriminated against equally. They agree it is unfair and they both post articles complaining that a secretive cabal is flagging their articles, downvoting their comments, hurting their feelings, etc. Those articles get flagged.
Build up your karma, submit interesting articles, and soon you will be empowered to flag for yourself. You won't be able to strike down an article yourself but together with a just a few other users you can.
Tech has become so intertwined with politics, it's hard to make a tech forum completely 100% politics free.
Would be nice if it was still libertarian 90s silicon valley (where politics matters a lot less, because you don't want to control anything), but that time is gone.
Would be nice if it was still libertarian 90s silicon valley (where politics matters a lot less, because you don't want to control anything), but that time is gone.
> Would be nice if it was still libertarian 90s silicon valley (where politics matters a lot less, because you don't want to control anything)
It ran up against the people who very much want to control things and turned out not to have a plan for that. The dot com boom attracted attention.
> but that time is gone.
And I think the proponents of that era have moved on as well. The big takeaway for me was that Meatspace Rules Everything Around Me and I ignore it at my peril.
It ran up against the people who very much want to control things and turned out not to have a plan for that. The dot com boom attracted attention.
> but that time is gone.
And I think the proponents of that era have moved on as well. The big takeaway for me was that Meatspace Rules Everything Around Me and I ignore it at my peril.
I think the light moderation style of HN is really great, and one of the reasons this is a space I like to come back to. Since you mention reddit, the vast majority of communities show in great variety and detail the pitfalls of moderation. Moderating a large community is already really difficult with the best of intentions, introducing more and more vague rules is only going to make it harder.
Since you mention politics in particular, it would be close to impossible to define an adequate boundary of what constitutes politics, and what is tech / lifestyle / entertainment; all 3 categories I think could also describe the thread on /r/antiwork.
Since you mention politics in particular, it would be close to impossible to define an adequate boundary of what constitutes politics, and what is tech / lifestyle / entertainment; all 3 categories I think could also describe the thread on /r/antiwork.
The recent antiwork thread was definitely not difficult to peg as purely political.
Thats nit what i saw at all. I saw people discussing modern economic features & peoplecs way of life. I saw only a little politics.
And i dont mind politics at all. When it degrades it's ugly. But most users seem to be willing to keep some open neutrality & interest in engaging one another, even when they disagree. I like tvis open society we have here & would not seek to change it. Itcs sad to hear someone insisting tbeir baised shape how everyone else acts & what we discuss.
And i dont mind politics at all. When it degrades it's ugly. But most users seem to be willing to keep some open neutrality & interest in engaging one another, even when they disagree. I like tvis open society we have here & would not seek to change it. Itcs sad to hear someone insisting tbeir baised shape how everyone else acts & what we discuss.
Every time a "JavaScript is bad!" thread is feature it leads to nothing but the same old tired arguments too, so I don't see why that's a barometer for quality.
I think the difference is that I can’t copy paste the conversation about JavaScript from CNN to HN. I could do that for mainstream political topics.