Re:Hacker News Transparency
by DoreenMichele on Thursday December 28, 2017 @12:00AM
(#16020414)
I think the aggressive moderation creates a space for good conversation. To my mind, it is the only place where free discussion can really occur, provided all involved parties meet the standards for civility, citing their sources, etc.
I have long been able to talk about my medical situation here and my pursuit of unconventional treatment. Doing so elsewhere has been strongly discouraged by the moderating staff. I have never once had an HN mod tell me I need to quit talking about that here. It is the one and only discussion forum where I can have a real discussion about such things and not have it promptly turn into ugly drama, with the forum viciously ganging up on me and mods telling me it is my fault.
The moderation here has given me the opportunity to try to learn to discuss it constructively, in spite of the long history of extreme skepticism and open hostility my situation has received.
Given that many people have outright called me crazy and I have been banned from a few forums over it, I find it incredibly hard to believe that the moderation here has any agenda other than fostering a high bar for civility so that serious intellectual discourse can occur at all, in spite of it being openly on the world wide web and not a walled garden.
It's a really challenging thing to do. And if they were doing anything akin to what they are so often accused of, I think you would see a lot fewer of those accusations because everyone would live in fear of being banned for commenting on it.
If your idea of free speech includes name calling, no, you cannot do that here. The reason: allowing it kills the ability to genuinely have a free exchange of ideas and information.
I spent a lot of time working to fit in here. It did not come naturally to me and a previous handle of mine was rate limited at one time. But these sorts of accusations in no way fit with my experience of the space. I really hate seeing them, yet also recognize their very existence is evidence of how untrue they are.
I have long been able to talk about my medical situation here and my pursuit of unconventional treatment. Doing so elsewhere has been strongly discouraged by the moderating staff. I have never once had an HN mod tell me I need to quit talking about that here. It is the one and only discussion forum where I can have a real discussion about such things and not have it promptly turn into ugly drama, with the forum viciously ganging up on me and mods telling me it is my fault.
The moderation here has given me the opportunity to try to learn to discuss it constructively, in spite of the long history of extreme skepticism and open hostility my situation has received.
Given that many people have outright called me crazy and I have been banned from a few forums over it, I find it incredibly hard to believe that the moderation here has any agenda other than fostering a high bar for civility so that serious intellectual discourse can occur at all, in spite of it being openly on the world wide web and not a walled garden.
It's a really challenging thing to do. And if they were doing anything akin to what they are so often accused of, I think you would see a lot fewer of those accusations because everyone would live in fear of being banned for commenting on it.
If your idea of free speech includes name calling, no, you cannot do that here. The reason: allowing it kills the ability to genuinely have a free exchange of ideas and information.
I spent a lot of time working to fit in here. It did not come naturally to me and a previous handle of mine was rate limited at one time. But these sorts of accusations in no way fit with my experience of the space. I really hate seeing them, yet also recognize their very existence is evidence of how untrue they are.