Comment by systemvoltage | Hacker News Reader

Comment by systemvoltage | Hacker News Reader

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> it's perfectly fine to either a) use a semi-anon alt or b) write in a circumspect manner. Preferably both.

This is the reason I use an anon account but there are still problems on HN. I apologize if I cause some trouble here on HN, but the flagging aspects of HN beyond rude/spam comments (which is what I suspect it is designed for) does a disservice to the community. My comments about inflation were flagged in March 2021 despite of being cordial and respectful. I trusted the scientists and the intellectual community, but I similarly saw some Lab Leak theory comments being flagged on HN. Vouching is a great feature, but not many people know it since it requires a couple of prerequisites - enough karma + settings to show flagged comments.

I hope we restrain ourselves to flagging behavior on HN. It also enrages people for trying to be reasonable, but contrarian, and seeing their comments disappear. Now, they're resolute and firmly dug into their contrarian views even if they were false.

So, if HN has these issues, the outside world is even worse. Try the same on Twitter and hard echo chambers form (blocking/etc). I am not engaged on Twitter or Reddit, but I occassionally observe this.

My 2 cents.

I hope we restrain ourselves to flagging behavior on HN.

Like many informal groups, it's difficult to judge the composition of the whole when you might be seeing just the actions of the very active few. You'll notice certain topics tend to provoke flagging and downvoting wildly out of proportion with the nature of the comments, and I believe this is because those have particular user interest groups with very ahem strong opinions. You may have also noticed how your comments tend to do quite well when they're new, but somehow pick up a basket of downvotes hours after the post has fallen off the front page. I believe these to be due to a population of generic haters crawling over every post downvoting large numbers of comments.

What's the best solution for a semi-anon scenario?

The best solution I've seen are Reddit AMAs where mods verify a semi-anon's credentials (e.g. "Mod has confirmed that ___ is an employee at the NIH.")

A service that a journalism outfit could provide. Someone like Quillette, perhaps. The author and the outlet mutually agree to what extent personal info is disclosed before publishing the controversial article.

It's like an extra powerful downvote button when someone disagrees with you.

No, it really isn't. Flags are used to mark comments that are breaking the guidelines, enough flags will kill a comment, but fewer will result in a moderator having a look at the comment, time permitting.

Haha, in theory that's true. But in practice comments are frequently flagged that the majority demographic of HN disagrees with, even breaking no guidelines. It's exactly what the OP to my comment was saying.

In practice they aren't, I should know. If your comments end up frequently flagged then you probably should read the guidelines a bit more closely.

You should know? As if you can speak for my own experience, and the experience of the above poster? We already outnumber you.

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