How the US Rendered, Tortured and Discarded One Innocent Man | Hacker News Reader

How the US Rendered, Tortured and Discarded One Innocent Man

thenation.com

28 pointsacqq9 comments

Here's an opinion:

People argue about what is and is not "on topic" for HN. Regularly items are submitted, only for people to say that since it's nothing to do with programming, technology, startups, or entrepreneurship, then it's not suitable for HN.

Quoting the guidlelines:

    On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting.
    That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to
    reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that
    gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

Those are the guidelines as laid down by our host, and that's fair enough. But I'd like to see a cultural shift. I'd like to add:

    If it's not in some way specific to the interests of hackers,
    then it's probably off-topic.

I submit a lot of stuff about education and mathematics, because I think these are subjects that interest hackers, but not the wider public. Topics that of more general interest I'd like to say don't really belong here.

This submission, in particular, should be of wide-spread, ubiquitous interest. It shouldn't be in any way specific to hackers, technologists, programmers, or entrepreneurs. In that way I believe that although it is and should be of interest to pretty much everyone here (including non-Americans) it is in no way specific to the interests of the community, and hence it is not really on topic.

So yes, I'm pleased to have seen it. But I personally think it's off-topic for HN. It should be of interest to HNers, but only because it should be of interest to everyone.

Well, from what I've seen from both HN and slashdot(which I read for a while) is that hackers tend to take an especially in keen interest in human rights-related issues(usually with a special focus on the the online stuff and privacy but not just).

In general, I don't think your addition to the rules is useful because so far, HN has managed to stay pretty specific to hackers without it. I don't know how, but somehow the community is still very much predominantly made of hacker-types and this means that things that are interesting to hackers tend to get upvoted more than others thus creating a nice feedback loop.

HN is ~6 years old now? It's managed to stay mostly "on topic" and not become reddit without any modification of the rules, I think we're fine.

What precisely do you gain by having a narrow focus? What do you lose by having this story on the front page for half a day?

What is essentially wrong with being off-topic?

Honestly, I think this place would be awful if it only had the focus you intend. The advertising nature of posts about this new project or that startup frequently crosses the line between informative and irritating.

In short, if you don't define and maintain a specific focus then people can and will start posting videos of pratfalls and pictures of kittens. Some focus is needed, and the question is how narrowly to define that.

I would like to see HN stay focused on things of interest to hackers, nerds, and geeks, as opposed to things that are of wider interest. There are plenty of places that cater to other interests, and few that are specific to "us".

    Honestly, I think this place would be awful
    if it only had the focus you intend.

"Intend" is the wrong word, but I hear what you say. That's your opinion, and you are entitled to hold it. If there was no focus here then I'd go elsewhere, and that's also fine. I'd just try to find, or found, another site that does have more of the focus I'd like to see.

not HN

Why not? You're trying to say there's no place for humanitarianism in HN?

A man was wrongly imprisoned and tortured, had his life torn apart. Now some people need to tell his story in order to get funding so he can get help to get up on his feet. What's wrong with that?

Sadly, Jonathan is letting his very strong political views once again get the upper hand and he flagged something he feels is somehow against the "best interest" of his country. For us participating in HN from outside the USA, it is baffling to see guys that can be so involved and intelligent on some issues (he is Creative Director at row27) and at the same time so openly aggressive and irrational on others. And yes, sorry, but it is irrational to say that this is not HN material, but actively participate in other political threads when they are about some political victories of your own political party (as he did for example in "Senate votes to repeal 1099 reporting requirement in health care law"). And BTW, as we always have to sadly explain, this would be the same if he is not republican but democrat or whatever. Some of us just really dislike double standards. And flagging this story because it makes your Military and government look bad, and excusing yourself in "not HN", well...

I'm sorry you feel that way, I hadn't thought I had ever expressed a "very strong political view" on HN. I flagged this article as "Not HN" because it doesn't really talk about startups, investing, coding, or anything really related to this forum, and apparently others agreed because it disappeared from the home page minutes later.

But I feel I'm probably feeding a troll.

Jonathan, then if you feel that way, why do you never flagged but instead participated in discussions in HN about political voting for the medical health bill? Please explain to us if Republicans winning a vote about it is something to be considered in the "investing", "startups", or "coding" category? Shameful from you call me a troll. You have no arguments, you just insult....

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