In the years i've been on hackernews, not once i've had the feeling even in the slightest that this is the case. This is crazy.
@dang any chance you want to make a comment on their claims?
Pretty damning stuff that I wasn't previously aware of.
Why would he, when the author has shown no evidence of the harassments and abuse he/she claims HN is full of.
Seems like a reasonable explanation why you might feel that way. I similarly haven't noticed that kind of rhetoric but I also haven't delved down into subthreads much
So unless the author shows some proof of that, I'd ignore their claim. Innocent until proven guilty.
I think blocking people from a certain community from accessing content, especially when the moderation team at least tries, is an odd approach at best. Why impede me from viewing content on your project just because the community I'm getting refered from has some moderation approaches you don't like?
I don't doubt that people sometimes argue here "unpolotely", though, IMO, the solution is simply not to engage.
Because some people have a very thin skin and low emotional maturity despite outstanding brilliance on technical topics: "I've been disrespected by a troll on HN once or twice, therefore HN is full of right wing trolls so I'm gonna block them all as revenge"
Kind of like that Twitter/Reddit/Discord mod who just bans everyone who disagrees with them. Swinging the ban hammer online is their way of fighting back to the social injustice they perceived on and offline, as IRL they're even afraid of making eye contact with the Doordash courier, let alone stand up for themselves in the face of a disagreement or argument, so these types of knee-jerk reactions are their blow-off valve.
See Elon Musk and his behavior online. He might be a genius in some areas, but that doesn't stop him from acting like a spoiled man-child online. A lot of people are like that unfortunately, like a lot, and they should be going to therapy and touching grass not on engaging more on social media.
The truth is, no matter how much good you do, the moment you put yourself out online, you're inevitably gonna have a certain percentage haters, downvotes, and generally rude comments thrown your way, and there's nothing you can do about it except ignore it. It's just inevitable and you can't let that get to you, you can't have a thin skin if you put yourself out online.
Imagine if Linus Torvalds would have rage-quit like that in the 90s every time someone negatively criticized him or his work. OSS devs back then were cut from a different cloth, today everyone's offended by everything.
That said, maybe it's not the best approach. I phrased it openly to see if the moderation team would prefer to not comment on the story, as an option.
Asahi Linux has been front page here many times, so this felt like a case where a comment from the moderation team (either way) would be appropriate, to me. Feel free to disagree.
edit: There are specific acusations of referer editing at the end of the article.
Edit: I search "asahi lina site:news.ycombinator.com" in duckduckgo, and found ">>35237006 " in the first result, for people who want proof.
Secondly, in my country due to the law, if you make unproven claims in your reviews on Google Maps or other public spaces, Google has to take the review down at your request and you can also get sued for defamation, so unless you have receipts you gotta be careful what claims you make in public about someone, especially when you call people alt-right.
Like I said, innocent until proven guilty, especially if you're gonna make wild accusations like that.
The boy who cried wolf comes to mind. If you go around calling everyone who disagrees with you "alt-right", that term looses it's meaning and everyone becomes desensitized and won't care anymore even when actual right wing behavior shows up.
Presuming you visit this site often, doesn’t this indicate to you that their case is perhaps overstated? From what I understand, the activity they’re talking about on HN is just comments, often in a [dead]ed thread, so they’re things one can simply choose not to engage with.
HN is a relatively diverse community; for every example of a hate comment there are dozens of more constructive comments, including those calling out the hater. There’s no special protection given to trash commenters. They’re often banned, sometimes even publicly called out.
Related, these comments caused me to discover Kiwi Farms. If you want to see a place that sounds like what is described in marcan’s letter, check that place out. That is absolutely a trash forum for trash people. Blocking HN traffic isn’t going to protect them from that sort. Indeed, thick skin and the willingness to put down their phone will protect them from that sort.