Mark Suster Shares Tips to Improve the Civility on Hacker News

Generally speaking, I think the civility on Hacker News is pretty good. I'd be interested to see a widely frequented news site / blog that had a more civil tone on average.

As for his suggestions:

1. If people have to post under real names then a lot of people with skin in the game won't post. It's as simple as that. I've no doubt the civility on average would improve, but the content -- and the insight from key people -- would go downhill.

2. Sure, no harm in flagging comments. Though if enough people down vote inappropriate comments that's probably better from a community perspective. One person flagging a comment as inappropriate does send the same message as 30 people down voting a comment does.

3. Sure.

This article is stupid. I use my real name and have no trouble calling people names or using the word "fuck". I'd do it in real life, too.

2. Allow people to flag inappropriate comments - HackerNews only allows you to flag stories that might be inappropriate. So there’s no way for me to highlight that I’m being harshly attacked by Brerrabbit and no retribution to his standing on HN for crossing the line.

This feature already exists. But nobody cares that someone made fun of you on a forum; flagging is mostly to prevent spam. Grow a pair and realize that nobody cares what someone says about you on the Internet. Close window, take a deep breath, and do something else. The comment will be buried in obscurity in a few hours.

But not if you blog about it.