zlacker

One of the main problems with banning political subjects on the site is that it favors the mainstream political ideas and disfavors the alternative political ideas.

This makes it essentially a political move on HN mods side, ie. not neutral at all, even though it "bans everything equally".

Mainstream political ideas disseminate through all other sorts of sites like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube or even cable news. Whilst alternative ideas do not. (Arguably not even on Reddit anymore)

Whilst you can certainly make the argument that what we post here doesn't matter because there isn't a million users on Facebook that it might reach, I think reaching the correct people, even if only less than a hundred, is worthwhile and arguably more impactful.

Now, with the way the world is moving forward right now, with Twitter and Parler, it turns out that allowing political subjects to be debated isn't exactly a neutral stance either. That it is essentially a stance that is "for" the alternatives, at least according to some powerful people in control.

Which puts the HN mods team in a damned if you do damned if you don't kind of seat.

I think in a more healthy world a site like this could and should stay on topic, avoiding political subjects outside the occasional coding-language or distro flamewars. ;)

But since the world is arguably terminally ill right now, HN should continue on it's current trajectory and "keep siding with the alternative political ideas", and allowing politics to be discussed.

I don't want to come off as accusing them of actually siding with any side however, I'm just stating that in the current climate, they come off that way whether they like it or not. In my personal opinion, a forum that allows moderated political debate is truly neutral, period. But my personal opinion doesn't set the tone for the political climate just yet.

>>rosmax+(OP)
No one has banned political subjects on HN. There was a brief experiment to see what the site would be like without them—it was scheduled to last a week, instead it lasted 2 days, and we've never dreamt of trying anything like it since.

>>dang+tE2
Right, I was speculating about what it would be like and my thoughts on that, IF it were so. But perhaps it came off as me commenting "a change on HN".

I'm glad to hear you've never dreamt of trying anything like it since. :)