zlacker

>>fahimu+(OP)
This question obviously is unlikely to have an answer, but someone has to ask: does "nation-state" include the Western countries, namely the US/EU and friends?

>>NhanH+v1
Of course not. The only states that do bad things are China, Iran, N.Korea, right?

>>agorab+A1
No need to downvote this reply. The sarcasm was an effective and appropriate way to communicate a serious point.

>>Myrmor+k2
Sincerity does a better job than sarcasm in communicating, usually.

>>wavefu+I2
Tedious HN thought police. Not everyone, not every culture, shares the aesthetics of communication implied by recent HN directives. I think we should consider the possibility that they are, though well-intentioned, overly prescriptive and ultimately oppressive.

>>Myrmor+Z3
The reason for HN's guidelines is not that we're uptight finger-waggers. It's that we understand the dynamics of a large anonymous internet forum. The alternative isn't HN-as-it-is, spiced up with more sarcastic or aggressive comments. The alternative is internet sludge.

The way to preserve what HN has that is good (and I'm not saying it's great, only that it's better than it might be) is to have a clear set of principles and communicate them. If you know a better set of principles, where the fitness function is high-quality discussion at scale, I'd love to hear what they are. Otherwise I'm going to suspect you of magical thinking, in which HN's current level is assumed to just happen for free, and for some reason meddlesome thought police keep intruding on it.