Bad times in Ukraine..... | Hacker News Reader

Bad times in Ukraine.....

usatoday.com

15 pointsbatoure11 comments

HN is among the worst places to discuss geopolitics; this is a current events story, far outside the guidelines of the site. Flagged.

From the site's welcome page:

"A crap link is one that's only superficially interesting. Stories on HN don't have to be about hacking, because good hackers aren't only interested in hacking, but they do have to be deeply interesting.

What does "deeply interesting" mean? It means stuff that teaches you about the world. A story about a robbery, for example, would probably not be deeply interesting. But if this robbery was a sign of some bigger, underlying trend, then perhaps it could be."

I think we are well within the bounds here

Not that I want to litigate this story, since it's already dropped off the front page like a rock, but just in case it's helpful:

A moment's thought will reveal that the words in the guideline can be used to justify virtually any story, up to and including "intellectual" cat photos. The site guidelines, which I do not love, are mostly a framework for subtext, which you can really only get by following 'pg and 'dang comments.

Some indicators that a story is unlikely to succeed here:

* It involves current events outside of technology

* It evokes partisan politics or, worse, partisan nationalism

* It's based on valence issues, like "countries should not register their Jewish people" or "the NSA should not read your mother's email", about which nobody could reasonably disagree

* It's likely to produce terribly unproductive threads

Advocates for political stories on HN are fond of pointing out how a great community like HN should be fertile ground for interesting political debates. Old-timers on the site have seen enough HN political debates to know that the opposite is true. HN political discussion results in:

* Commenters arguing nastily with each other about how much more authentically they agree with a position they both hold

* Commenters that have had fascinating and productive discussions about technology or entrepreneurship or science reduced to slander and personal insults

* Threads dominated almost entirely by tired cliches that a sophisticated markov commenter could generate just as effectively; these are HN's equivalent of "First Post!1!111!".

I think you'll find that as you spend more time here, stories and threads like this are a sad aberration, and (fortunately) rarely survive on the front page for long.

Also, the "outrage tourist". Which was an eloquent way of summing up a significant chunk of 2013. Although, at this point, the outrage tourism might be part of the 'markov comment' background radiation of hacker news.

This is not only way outside the bounds, it's an example of exactly what we don't want in an HN post: inflammatory material that is guaranteed not to produce reflection or a thoughtful discussion. Even if that weren't a problem, there is a narrower issue with the post: it falls in the scope of possible propaganda. I do not mean that it is false, but rather that to know whether it is would require careful analysis and sourcing that HN is not the place for.

In addition, the submission title is exactly the kind of editorializing the guidelines ask not to do.

The post was killed by user flags, and rightly so. That is what flagging is for.

Have you ever read the HN guidelines? I advise you to do so.

"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."

I don't know if I qualify as a good hacker, but I sure find this interesting. And the fact that this is on the front page suggests that others do too.

[0] http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html EDIT: I have flagged the article too, after reading ajoc's link. You should still read the guidelines, because I (personally) am in doubt that your reason for flagging was 'legitimate'.

I'll go on record as saying I flagged it too. There are plenty of other sites for this kind of thing.

WTH? It's like we went on repeat. Hard to believe something like that is still happening in 2014.

It's fake: http://www.reddit.com/r/UkrainianConflict/comments/236zs3/fl...

Still - Russian invasion on Ukraine is outrageus and the world community should stop Russian aggression.

It's not 'proven' to be fake yet (although I hope it is!)

So I think that there is a difference between something that is fake and something that was unsanctioned. Fake would be if someone had made the document and showed it to a reporter but never handed it out. This document was handed out by a group of people. The fact that these types of things are happening is certainly of note.

Here is the google translate of the Ukrainian article article cited on reddit:

Internet newspaper "News of Donbass", informing them of the news in the Donetsk region argues that in Donetsk near the synagogue handed a flyer. Instruction is an anti-Semitic nature and written in the spirit of Nazi references to Jews during the Holocaust. "Dear citizens of Jewish nationality. Due to the fact that the leaders of the Jewish community of Ukraine Bandera supported junta in Kiev and hostile to Donetsk Orthodox country and its citizens, Main Headquarters decided the following "- the statement says. further stated to the Jews to come with proof of identity, as well as documents on ownership of real estate. The appeal stated that the registration of Jews will be $ 50 in the office number 514 Donetsk Regional State Administration. Jews have not fulfilled the requirements waiting for deprivation of citizenship and confiscation of property. Downstairs leaflets stated: People either Governor Denis Pushilin and bears the seal of the People's Republic Donetsk. Journalists Media Project "Kiev Jewish 'asked for comments to Denis Pushilin. He confirmed that a leaflet signed by the organization he heads, really resounded in Donetsk. He assured that neither he nor his organization did not have any relation to it. "Some freaks yesterday distributed to outlets Kalinin district ... But even here the poor worked - I myself never called people's governor ... A Matsuka which is posted Online news days wa - a well-known grant-Donets ... "- said the media project" Kiev Jewish "Denis Pushilin.

Would welcome a translation from a native speaker

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