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Comment by DanielleMolloy | Hacker News Reader

And this is the current top comment. Welcome to Hacker News.

(my reply gets MRA-downvoted in 3.. 2.. 1..)

Yes, it was a bad comment with predictable effects. Still, breaking the site guidelines further is not a good way to reply. This comment (and others you posted) broke the site guidelines by being unsubstantive, calling names, complaining about downvoting, and baiting users into downvoting you. Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

Any large, optionally anonymous forum such as HN will include comments that hit any reader unpleasantly (it certainly does me) as well as genuinely nasty stuff. Any trend that exists in society at large is going to show up here. Or rather, societies, since many participate and their values don't all agree. That is a major factor here and perhaps the least understood.

If you generalize about HN based on the worst that stands out, in effect you contribute to worsening it, since it contributes to a view of the site as dominated by the long tail of shit, when this is not true. What's true is that HN is divided on controversial issues, just like the rest of the world is. But the vast majority of the userbase is here for civil, substantive discussion and hates this sort of trainwreck as much as you do and we do.

It takes time for the system to correct itself: flamewars flare up, and abusive commments pile up, very quickly. The counterweights—downvotes and flags by thoughtful users, and moderator intervention—take longer. There's not much we can do about this time discrepancy, because reflexive behaviors are always quicker than reflective ones.

(We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13020973.)

Please resist making comments about being downvoted. It never does any good, and makes boring reading. Also, avoid baiting users by announcing that you expect to be downvoted.

Please resist trying to teach other users.

This is completely off the subject but are you trying to indicate that he is somehow "man-splaining".

Educating readers as to the code of conduct of the site is required otherwise you would be downvoted without understanding why and just blaming it on "them bloody MRA's".

This is also completely off the subject, but I expect that in few minutes all my comments disappear as [flagged]. I am -20 from my score before the few comments in this thread now.

The OP's strongly offensive statement is still one of the top comments for this article.

Maybe there is something in here to "learn" for you guys.

Complaining about downvoting is never productive. They are just internet points.

Internet points that prove the point. And, as predicted, most of my comments are [flagged] now. Do you see the little story this tells?

That making a big stink about getting downvoted is a good way to get downvoted more?

Don't worry tomorrow it will be forgotten and we'll have another thread lamenting that the main problem of today's society is the evil tech giants that promote opinion bubbles.

He's just stating common HN etiquette.

The rules of engagement so to speak.

You're going to be downvoted for a troll-y, baiting post that has no content. Being downvoted will not validate your hypothesis.

I made a statement about HN's worrying MRA hive that doesn't appear to see any problem with this top comment, but with mine (btw, you prove my point too).

If you have a problem with the post, state what it is. Bashing HN for whatever "hive" you see it containing is baiting.

The problem is obvious and needs no explanation. The post in question extrapolates that all women are gold diggers from a single study that purports to have found manipulative behavior in a few groups of monkeys.

It's a factual statement, not baiting, to observe that her comment was [flagged] instantly for containing a passing "downvoting" remark, while the original comment is still one of the highest voted comments in this thread.

This confirms that, indeed, the HN audience does not see any serious problems with the statement: "Females have evolved to extract resources from males.", which is exemplified by your request to state what the problem with it is.

That comment was directly at odds with HN's guidelines:

"Please resist commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading."

And when Colin Percival, a widely respected member of community quoted exactly that excerpt, that person got combative and doubled down, throwing baseless accusations of some kind of MRA conspiracy.

Frankly, I am disturbed by a display of such callousness, not giving people the benefit of the doubt.

The HN audience likely sees a number of potential readings in context and is interested in which particular one you and GP have chosen to reify. It's unlikely (as shown by negative comments) that the community approves or agrees with all of them.

> which is exemplified by your request

I requested nothing. If you care to offer you opinions do so, but do just that rather than speculate - the lack of down-votes for the above post confirms nothing, you are speculating; whereas challenging the content of the post directly might reveal more.

I'm sure there's quite a few people who think the OP is terribly offensive, and are appalled at the insinuation it wouldn't be downvoted or moderated.

Edit: The fact that your post got flagged faster than the OP on the other hand does reinforce your point and reflects very badly on HN.

I know that plenty of these people exist. But the anti-fem crowd outweighs them right now, once more. At least when looking at these votes. This is worrying since, after all, this shapes the discussion, the atmosphere here and the minds of people with yet to stabilize opinions.

I, probably like a lot of others, took this post as a tongue-in-cheek joke. I think we're all mature enough to handle it, as the humour comes from how offensive the joke is and not from some universal truth behind the statement.

If it actually was meant as a serious comment and is being upvoted, then that's truly fucked up and would make me seriously question this forum. But I'm giving benefit of the doubt.

Take a look at the posting history of OP to get an idea.

I edited my post. You were, however unfortunately, completely right.

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