Jason, any comment?
I don't think he has anything to worry about for that last part, Google is notorious for letting big sites off the hook(remember Target?) + here Google is also making their share of money off adsense
I don't necessarily condone their page design and misdirection, but I have found answers on them through Google searches in the past.
Scuttlebutt among SEOs whose opinion I respect suggests that it is highly probable they got a backchannel from Google telling them that either they could drastically reduce the footprint of their pages in the SERPs or that Google's search quality team would assist them in doing so.
Anyhow, their traffic went down by about 50% in a month, if you trust Compete et al.
Search for [Scribd "aggressive SEO"] if you want the whole tale.
http://www.quantcast.com/scribd.com
The big falloff end of June I assume.
While it's true there's no accounting for taste, I suggest you consult the dictionary on the definition of 'drivel'.
At the end of the day, PG can do, essentially, whatever he likes with the content, routing (or lack there of), and posting permissions on Hacker News. It's HIS site.
It's a shame that ScribD doesn't seem to play by an equivalent set of ownership principles. Namely, hosting and making money off other creator's content without so much as asking their permission; let alone proffering any ad-revenue sharing.
I meant drivel. The linked post starts with:
> So, I went with, “fuckyourwhoremotherinheronegoodear.”
Drivel is "childish talk" (mom insults, anyone?) http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/drivel
As to your other points, I think they are good. For me, intelligent debate does not talk about fucking anyone's whore mother in their ear. If that is what I was looking for, I'd read YouTube comments.
edit: admittedly, tptacek does have a point re: the flag button vs. blacklist.
Again, there's no accounting for taste, but offhand I'd say labeling curse words, and their creative use, as "childish" is quite overreaching. Have you read any David Mamet, Frank McCourt, or Larry McMurtry lately? Do you honestly feel a child would have sufficient skill to structure prose in that fashion?
Can I add that Paul's method of making things disappear without telling users is shit? It was a lot of fun realizing my account was dead and I wasn't just going crazy. Same with this story. I almost posted a comment defending him until I thought to test the story logged out.
That's low, even by pg's standards.
Note that if he did do black hat shit, and wanted this to blow over, this is the perfect dismissive response: starve the story.