Hacker News Reader

Comment by avsteele | Hacker News Reader

It could easily be the case that a popular channel warning 'DON'T DO THIS' could make the situation worse by telling more people about an idea they would never have heard of otherwise.

The fact that some (presumably less seen) videos haven't been removed (yet) doesn't change this calculus.

View on HN

That is a very creative excuse but it cannot explain why this video which described the dangers of the practice and did not explain in detail how to go about doing. It would be removed when none of the videos that demonstrate how to do this were taken down.

I think a much more plausible explanation is that YouTube simply does not have an effective mechanism for deciding what videos to take down and which ones to leave up.

And yet they've decided they should have the authority and mandate to do so. You can't automate good moderation.

Thats an extremely negative view of people's ability. There's a point where you have to realize you can't protect people from themselves. A video that simply provides knowledge in an accessible way without preaching and condescension does far more than an outright ban that gives the viewer no information.

The new video shows lots of examples of comments on the original video where people thanked her for warning them not to do it, so it's worth factoring that in. Certainly a couple people will go 'wow, getting killed to make cool wood? sounds sick' and do it but I suspect the number of people scared away is higher.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com