shadowbanthrow

I'm sure that felt like a celebratory victory while typing it, but there is no small measure of hilarious irony in attempting to score points about who's displaying more empathy and self-awareness, and feeling satisfied pointing out a perceived lack of it where none was warranted.

I asked for information hoping to expand on a position so far from reality that it's almost nonsensical. Asking that question more nicely is orthogonal to empathy.

> Also HN is mostly free of the unproductive "culture wars" discussions that have led to the heat death of so many fora.

This is objectively and demonstrably false. The wars just manifest differently and happen to lead to an outcome that you prefer.

There's a reason this site has "avoid controversial topics unless you have something new to add" or however it's phrased in the guidelines. Let me be completely and plainly clear: there is an HN culture. You will be banned, often quietly, if you wander off that reservation.

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Edit: Dan, I'm rate limited, so you get the edit here because I can't be bothered to account hop again.

Grandiose? You ban people for not adhering to a culture. How is that even a remotely controversial statement? What else would you ban them for?

There is a set of guidelines and approaches you want in place for HN behavior. When people fail to meet those, you give them a couple chances and then remove them from the community. Examples: "We've asked you to be nicer," or "we've asked you not to bring up gender politics," or whatever nice explanation you give.

There's a word for that kind of thing; that word is culture.

I wasn't even criticizing moderation, because I'm not sure what I could add there because it's your employment to manage this stupidity, but you sure showed up fast assuming I was. Is it really like that now? Nobody can speak objectively about how this site works and point out an incontrovertible fact without you taking it personally and trying to rally a bunch of usernames you've never met to believe you?

While I have you, I appreciated that you declined to share your age in that fawning profile you and Scott got. That was tacit admission of your own site's culture, and you know it.

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Edit 2: I'm really enjoying watching your comment evolve via edits into reading back exactly what I'm saying from a position of authority and then challenging me to find authority.

Hold up, you really think the HN community is generally empathetic and self-aware? Like, you believed that while typing it? Do we read the same people?

Those are not the sole two options one has available when called a derogatory name. A fun third option is to completely ignore it and demonstrate in that ignorance that you've already won the conversation, which breaks the negative reinforcement you're discussing.

Seriously, next time someone goes after you, try it. Laugh and move on. It's really, really fun to watch what people do in response, because their anger at not landing the desired effect often manifests in physical twitches. Don't give people what they want until it benefits you.

This is why I often, and loudly, make the point that Hacker News is a great reflection of SV at large. It is also not the only example.

The indictments here regarding perceived expertise outside of one's lane are not necessarily indictments of Hacker News. Hacker News reflects its constituency, a large number of whom unconsciously feel that software engineering expertise is a gateway to understanding other disciplines better than those actually practicing them. Just throw some code at it, right? Misplaced competency in far-ranging topics thanks to software engineering and VC exit is only validated by, say, essays written by two very famous people here that get a clap circle every time they're posted.

I've studied this effect in my own life (I am far from immune) and I think it's because software engineering, and architecture especially, gives one a systems approach to thinking. It feels natural to apply your systems thinking to all of the problems in the world that look like they need a system. The problem is that the world is a plethora of imperfect variables, and what seems to be a "simple" system to fix the world in the eyes of a Ruby developer lacks the nuance to understand all of the reasons things are the way they are. Ironically, those same engineers often perceive the danger of a wholesale rewrite of code which discards the same exact hard-won nuance in their own system.

My life got immeasurably better once I was banned from this community and exited SV. I can assure you that the summaries on N-Gate and such, no matter how much shooting of that messenger is expended by people who believe themselves to be right, reflect how this site, and SV at large, are perceived outside of the community. Yeah, all that venture capital and world-changing hubris and "software will eat the world and give us flying cars" thinking, and here we are with half the world rotting on Facebook and the other half showing up on ClearviewAI.