Hacker News Reader

Comment by hyperpape | Hacker News Reader

Flagged, as there is clearly political content here that doesn't comport with new Hacker News rules.

"new Hacker News rules"

I think this should read: current weeklong experimental policy on Hacker News.

I also don't feel like this list of books justifies getting flagged, even during this reprieve from political discussion. If loads of comments start flaming, maybe then. But right now it is just a list of suggested books to read.

It's a slippery slope. If we censor articles indiscriminately, what's the point of censoring them at all?

To make us feel better about collaborating with authoritarians

That's specifically counter to the rules, though: it's a detox. We're supposed to get better as a community by avoiding these topics entirely. Flaming was already against the rules, and low-contribution (though non-flaming) comments were already subject to downvote.

Got it. I would have been happiest with this on the front page, but I just happen to really like reading lists. No matter.

> If you flag something, please don't also comment that you did.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

A good guideline in general, but I hope you can imagine reasons why it might be worth commenting in this rather unusual case.

If you read the guidelines, politics has always been considered off-topic.

What it says is "most stories about politics", which is deliberately vague, but not the same as the current experiment.

People seem to think that previously, politics was an ok thing to post. Mostly, it was not.

No, the current experiment is just a reminder of the existing rules with added encouragement to flag.

Compare the announcement (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13108404) and the guidelines. It seems completely obvious to me that they're saying different things.

Exactly. Shameful attempt to smuggle politics onto a tech site.

Perhaps they could simply censor Jared Friedman's choice of "Strangers in Their Own Land" for the remainder of the week. A book that's "very helpful for understanding the other half of the country" doesn't belong on HN right now.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com