I don't understand what that's supposed to be denying. I'm just explaining how HN works. The connection between tech and politics is hardly new and it's discussed on HN all the time. I mentioned there is a current events discussion on the front page right now and I got it wrong - there are two, and that's not counting the many places these topics come up in other threads. I just don't see how you arrive at this 'looking away' business. Not having a thread for every Elon Musk goosestep is not 'looking away', it's just no the sort of place that has a thread for every Elon Musk goosestep.
With no undue disrespect, you just got here. Might want to give it a bit of time so the working part makes more sense. You haven't as much as responded to anything written here beside repeating the same somewhat unclear and seemingly inaccurate thing (there is current events political discussion on HN right this second) over and over.
I've come out of self imposed retirement from the shitshow that this site has become just to point out that how long you have been here doesn't have any bearing whatsoever on the quality of your contribution.
OP is right in that HN uses the 'it's been flagged' excuse to avoid facing some very uncomfortable truths, and that is fractionally why the world is currently being destabilized to a degree that we have not seen in the last 90 years or so. We - all of us - in the tech world are part and parcel and in many ways instrumental in this, and dare I say guilty as well. We're chasing the $ but we're losing sight of our impact on the world.
I has a lot to do with the quality of your contribution if your contribution is telling others how the site works. It's complicated and full of written and unwritten conventions. It takes a while to figure out. Of course new users and their new perspectives deserve a hearing but the perspective here seems to be 'I don't like this' and the argument supporting it appears to be simply repetition while remaining entirely unresponsive to any counterpoints. Maybe I missed it but I really see no evidence the person I'm talking to as much as looked at any of the linked stuff or made much of an effort to formulate some kind of response.
You'd hope so. But I'm not convinced it is without a lot more research, HN and by extension YC have made a pretty big mark on the tech world so there is a fair chance that the negative influence (or what could have been positive influence) is outsized as well. Keep in mind that many billions of $ have passed through the hands of the people on this forum.
> how long you have been here doesn't have any bearing whatsoever on the quality of your contribution.
Perhaps not. But a 22-day-old account saying, over and over, "this site should be something else" is... a bit tone-deaf? A bit presumptuous? You don't show up in our community and immediately tell us that the whole purpose of our community should be what you demand. ("You" meaning zfg, not jacquesm.)
Fair but I don't think account age should be left isolated when discussing these things and saying 'you just showed up' for a genuine - and frankly, long overdue - discussion on a pretty pressing issue is out of place if we are supposed to be the 'better alternative'. The time for sticking our fingers in our ears and pretending everything is great is long past and given HN's own issues with finding the balance between doing our jobs, aiming for something better and doing so responsibly we should be very wary of falling into the trap that allows us to pretend nothing is going on because all relevant discussions get flagged. That's abdication and the tech world is super good at this.
zfg raises a valid point. So either debate them on merit or let it go (downvote, move on, whatever) but don't pull rank without engaging the actual subject matter. They are pointing out that HN does not work in this sense and it is - at least to me - abundantly clear that they have a point. For myself, I've given up. I've seen the most idiotic exchanges go without counter because I suspect more people have given up. zfg has not given up, yet, in part because they have just joined. They are still in the honeymoon phase and probably can't imagine why HN would be actively discouraging discussion around some of the most important issues facing the tech world today.
You're welcome to agree with zfg's point and argue its merits. They certainly haven't so that might be an improvement. Dismissing mine as 'pulling rank' is just rude and lame. I've engaged with this person over a whole bunch of comments, I've tried to be clear and reasonably polite. I certainly didn't expect you to 'come of out retirement' to be a jerk to me - it doesn't seem worth it beside being totally out of line.
There's links to literally years of explanations of this stuff in my other comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42907475