Comment by dang | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dang | Hacker News Reader

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I agree with the "take" that this article isn't going to get discussed substantively and thoughtfully on HN. You needn't look far to see why—the current thread demonstrates it.

The commenters insisting that this is the wrong call don't seem to have fully taken in the intended purpose of this site, because they're actually making a case in favor of the flags, not against them.

Btw, it's not true that every political post gets flagged. HN's approach to that question has been stable for a long time, even though there can be strong disagreement about specific calls. If you or anyone wants to read about what the approach is, there are lots of links at https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so.... In particular, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22902490 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21607844 are good places to start.

Indeed many of the top comments are about how this thread will inevitably be flagged but continuing on to give substantive commentary. Is this not a sign that the system is not producing the desired results? That good contributors see a good topic and give up on it isn’t a sign that the topic is inherently not worth discussing.

This is the culture HN is building not one magically produced by the topics themselves, and I think the fact the that the only moderator on the site agrees that all political discussion is not worth having contributes to the quality of political discussion on the site.

I think you do a great job overall dang, but I think politics is inherently in an area that highlights the downsides of having a single moderator at the helm. I get wanting to avoid policing political thought but does shutting it all down produce the best community? Does allowing power users to disable commentary on certain topics create the community you are trying to build?

We're far from "shutting it all down"; that's what those links in my GP comment are about. It's a question of which stories/threads have the best chance at supporting a thoughtful discussion.

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