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Comment by dang | Hacker News Reader

Hey, it looks like your account has been taking HN into flamewars everywhere it shows up, like a pyromaniacal Johnny Appleseed* - can you please not do that? It should be obvious from https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html why that's not ok here.

* Believe it or not, I mean this affectionately - I've personally been enjoying your posts, I love a good moon landing hoax, and I don't think contrarianism is necessarily flamebait, though the two can be hard to distinguish. But we need you to use HN in the spirit of curious conversation, not derailing and dysregulation.

A certain dose of contrarianism is fine if it's part of a mix of using HN as intended. What's not fine is tossing molotov cocktails and leaving the site to suffer the consequences. If you want to post to HN, we need you to take care of the ecosystem the same way you would using a city park or a public campground.

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> I love a good moon landing hoax

Swing and a miss. Though I don't look down on the 'moon landing hoax' folks as many unfairly do, I actually believe the other extreme - we've been sending people to the moon nonstop since the 70s. Seems the likeliest of the 3 main scenarios. But ultimately, I'm was interested in a discussion as it one of the most fascinating topics of the modern era. Hope you aren't too disappointed.

Also, as you already know, I don't start flamebaits, I just participate in them. You should skip over me and climb up the comment tree to the source. Not telling you how to do your job but I believe that would be the most fruitful course of action. What do you think? Besides, I only post a comment or two for the edification of future readers. My intention certainly isn't to set the site on fire.

I'm glad you enjoy some of my comments and I hope you don't see me as the guy throwing molotovs, but the one pointing and shouting 'look! this guy is throwing molotov cocktails over there!'. A flamewar alarm bell if you will.

Actually I think you've been starting a large number of them—or at least significantly worsening.

"Start" is rather a dubious concept to begin with, as everyone always feels like the other person started it and did worse. This is one of the most reliable phenomena on HN (and no doubt with internet forums in general) - you can set your clock by it.

> Actually I think you've been starting a large number of them—or at least significantly worsening.

I can't think of any I started. Even this thread wasn't started by me. And my response wasn't that flamebaity. I was simply giving my honest opinion to actual flamebait.

> "Start" is rather a dubious concept to begin with, as everyone always feels like the other person started it.

I suppose. But in most cases, you can just climb the comment tree to find the root.

Also, I see tons of flamebait here. I ignore most of them. For example, this guy loves to flamebait.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36722869

Yet you haven't censured him. It's only when I respond and bring the flamebait to light, that you would recognize it. Maybe it's time for comments to have a report link where we can report flamebait? Or is flamebait allowed as long as no one takes the bait?

The simple reason is that we don't see everything that gets posted here. Actually we barely see 1% of what gets posted here. So if you see a post that ought to have been moderated but hasn't been, the likeliest explanation is that we didn't see it. You can help by flagging it or emailing us at hn@ycombinator.com.

Other people breaking the rules doesn't make it ok for you to break them, though. That should go without saying.

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