zlacker

I think this sort of thing taken to the limit will cut every which way until eventually we run out of subjects and the overton window shrinks into an overton dot.

>>vertic+(OP)
We've been running this system for something like a decade now, I think we know how it's going to converge.

>>vertic+(OP)
The risk that the quality of discourse on HN falls to Reddit leveles of shitposting seems a greater one to me. Having high volume of popular highly polarized discussions seems a great way to have an Eternal September[2] event, and there is no way to recover what makes a forum unique after that.

HN is a single place on the internet with clear moderation guidelines[1]. It doesn't have to cater to every form of speech. In fact, actively not doing so is probably the reason why HN's level of discourse is comparatively high.

People who want Reddit should go to Reddit, not drag HN with them through the mud.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternal_September

>>tptace+b1
I don't. I'd like to know however! Do tell!

>>vertic+64
It converges to the front page we have now, which, while imperfect, seems to be to the liking of the community, such that stories like this carry a bunch of comments about how happy they are about moderation here, and how about how few if any of the stories getting yeeted from the front page are things they even want to see on HN.

HN does not have to be a space for conversations about every important story. It is enough for it to be good at the conversations it is good at. There's a whole wide internet out there for the rest of the important conversations to take place on. Moreover: that has always been the premise of HN; it's not a principle we just sort of slipped into accidentally.