zlacker

>The most ideologically motivated or extreme posts and comments on Hacker News—an interview piece from Quillette titled “Understanding Victimhood Culture”; a link to a video of James Damore and Jordan Peterson in conversation; one user telling another that all Jewish people should relocate to Israel—tend to get flagged by the community or the site’s anti-abuse systems, many of which Bell and Gackle have written themselves...

>When stories that focus on structural barriers faced by women in the workplace, or on diversity in tech, or on race or masculinity—stories, admittedly, that are more intriguing to me, a person interested in the humanities, than stories on technical topics—hit the front page, users often flag them, presumably for being off topic, so fast that hardly any comments accrue.

These are features, not bugs, and testaments to the quality moderation. All over the internet these topics are discussed, ad nauseam, and they're some of the most divisive issues in modern day discourse. Even the author can't seem to represent her political opponents fairly.

Without removing these topics, these ideological wars will irrevocably divide the community, sending one segment away in deep frustration. If we'd like to unify society, it's far more important to have spaces which don't immediately polarize along these lines.