And now the current discussion is also flagged. The flagging system is entirely broken. HN makes a point not to have Reddit-style post downvoting, but instead it implemented something even worse in practice; at least downvoted posts on Reddit don't get automatically disappeared.
It is terrifying is what it is. That HN seems to be pretending that everything is going just fine and allowing these discussions to be buried is more than a little bit concerning. Have a fucking spine!
For the 94th time: It's not that we don't have a spine. It's not that we're pretending everything is fine. It's that we don't want to discuss it all day long on HN. We want HN to be something else than a political discussion site.
Bluesky, Mastodon, Lemmy, Tildes X, Reddit. Do you want more?
On Bluesky and X you're actually fairly likely to read the conversation or at least policy viewpoints of actual policy makers and think tanks. Rather than hackers speculating about a field they have little experience in.
Then don't discuss it? Literally don't click the thread, that's all it takes. Heck, you can even hide it! Why does everyone else have to pretend the world doesn't exist for your sensitivites? Why are a couple of users allowed to entirely dictate what is "authorized" to discuss?
The site guidelines dictate what is appropriate to discuss. The site guidelines say that most politics is off-topic. Partly because political conversations turn into... into the kinds of discussions that the political threads here have been turning into.
Just asking a question like proves the point. Bluntly yes those discussions are fine. With the huge polarization in politics, regardless of side it devolves into an endless low-signal comments that add nothing new of value. There is no added value in any comments that would crop up from a post like this. It is also why anything related to Israel vs Gaza get auto flagged. People like to project it’s because of secret operations to remove all negative publicity but generally it’s more mundane, folks don’t want to rehash the same arguments over and over.
I understand the idea here of course. I have been posting and commenting on HN for the better part of two decades. I don't want to see HN descend into a complete chaos of political news, I agree with that. But it also feels not so right to have absolutely zero response or reflection on current events within this community given how close this democracy seems to be teetering on the edge.
This community DOES generally have a higher level of discourse than other parts of the internet and I don't believe that is wholly because we avoid contentious topics. (thus my vim vs emacs example)
This is my feeling exactly. I also don't want to be discussing politics here and have used the "hide" function many times since 2009. But this is bigger than everything we'be been discussing here in all that time, and if we don't fight back soon everything we have will be lost.
Tenure of two decades has little to do with these stories having low signal. These news stories are everywhere, the comments have low to no value and the article itself has no nuance or insight.
Israel v Palestine. Lots of posts will pop up over time. If it’s simply an another attach or similar and you start seeing a he roll of disagreement from both sides, flag. There is nothing additive to it. I remember vouching a story though that was touching on Israel’s PR marketing ability of the war. That’s fascination and both new as well as high potential to discuss something new.
In the current immigration and administration. I feel like to some degree the horse has been beaten. There is not much to add for yet another misstep in the administrations policy. There is both no new interesting angles from the news itself and the discussion has been beaten to death by both sides already.
It is not an indication that the topic is not important but to me that there is nothing left to say on the topic. I am certain there are folks that would love to keep going on and on about it for either side but nothing new or engaging comes from it. I am sure others disagree but that is my mental model.
