zlacker

I wish they would come under scrutiny more often—it would mean people are reading them!

Everything on https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html is derived from (a) HN's core value of intellectual curiosity, which is the sole thing we're optimizing for (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...), and (b) well over 10 years of experience operating this place.

Not only that, but they're garbage-collected periodically, meaning that if there's any rule there which isn't 'paying' for the space it consumes on that page, we take it out. It's like a codebase that way: complexity is the enemy, less is more, and deleting is at least as important as adding.

If anyone has a cogent case for deleting one of the guidelines, that would be most helpful. If anyone can think of one that should be added, and can't be derived from what's already there, that would also be helpful.

>>dang+(OP)
It's very hard to be intellectually curious when I'm only allowed to post 3-4 comments an hour. What if I'm having a conversation with someone? Why am I not allowed to respond?

>>viklov+O2
We rate limit accounts when they post too many low-quality comments too quickly and/or get involved in flamewars. We're happy to take the rate limit off if people give us reason to believe that they understand the site guidelines and sincerely want to use HN in the intended spirit. But it's best to email hn@ycombinator.com and ask us to look into it.

I realize it's annoying to be rate limited, but it's one of the few (crude) software tools we have to try to put off the descent of the forum into flamewar, so dropping the mechanism isn't really an option.

>>dang+P21
Oh ok, so if I'm a good dog you'll take my leash off? Can you please just delete my account like I've asked for multiple times?

If not, what does it take to earn a permaban?

>>viklov+6J2
I can't find any record of you asking us to delete your account. Have you emailed hn@ycombinator.com, as https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html explains?