All that would happen is the platform and the moderation would be separated, and the moderation optional. There would be a 4chan-like hacker news platform, and hacker news modlist that hides problematic comments.

Hacker news already operates like this in a small way with shadowbanned accounts. Users can choose whether to see shadowbanned comments or hide them from view, what level of censorship they prefer.

Platforms only being platforms wouldn't turn everything into spam and screeching. It just means you'd be able to see that if you wanted to.

I only use HN clients where the default is the sensible thing, see everything.

Curious what the website uses as a default for no logged in account/new accounts - anyone fill in the blank for me?

Showdead is off by default. You can test it in private/incognito mode.

Welp, there goes the respect I had.

Censorship by default, not just for crybabies who are afraid of reading things they don't like.

Depressing. But, that's what I've come to expect on this channel.

That’s a good question. Presumably you could draw some line to distinguish between small communities and enormous ones (tens of millions of monthly active users, for example), or distinguish between social media and forums.