tomhow

Comments moved to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49184960 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49184755.

Comments moved to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49184755.

Comments moved thither. Thanks!

Excuse me, this isn’t policing speech, this is asking you not to act like a jerk. There’s an important difference. It’s not just about being respectful to others, it’s about bothering to make solid arguments yourself. If you can’t make your point without demeaning other people, you probably don’t have a good point at all.

We want this to be a place where difficult topics can be discussed and all points of view can be expressed, and we work hard to keep it that way. If you’re not interested in bothering making your points thoughtfully, there’s the whole rest of the internet for you to explore.

Please don't post flamebait or engage in ideological battle on HN. We've asked you this before. We have to ban accounts that keep commenting like this. The guidelines make it clear we're trying for something better here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

We've banned this account. We've asked you several times across multiple accounts to observe the guidelines. You know this isn't acceptable.

> Source - trust me bro

Please don't post snark on HN, no matter how right you are or feel you are. The guidelines make it clear we're trying for something better here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

We've banned this account.

Please don't use epithets like this on HN. It's unkind, even if there’s any truth to it. It's not about anything you owe to the person being discussed, but about the way we talk about people on HN. If there's an anecdote that illustrates what you mean, please share it. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> What's next? "BaCk iN mY DaYs SumMeRs WeRe HoT ToO" ?

Please don't sneer like this on HN. The guidelines make it clear we're trying for something better here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

We've banned this account. This is not what HN is for and destroys what it is for. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

There is an ongoing pattern of snarkiness in your comments. Please make the effort to converse curiously and substantively. We have to ban accounts that continue to participate in this way. The site only continues to exist because others make the effort to raise the standards rather than drag them down.

We've banned this account for using HN for ideological battle and posting incoherent but apparently threatening comments. Please don't poison HN like this. Thoughtful debate is always fine here.

Comments moved thither. Thanks!

Please don't post snark on HN. The guidelines make it clear we're trying for something better here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

We've banned this account. This style of participation is obviously not what HN is for and we've asked you before not to post like this.

Please don't post snarky flamebait like this on HN. The guidelines make it clear we're trying for something better here. We'd hope that HN users can countenance that water for people and water for growing food (for people) are both important. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> Your idea is 'i heard about desert avocadoes on tiktok and its insane and whoever does it needs machine-gunned.'.

Please don't post this kind of denunciatory rhetoric on HN. It sounds like you have interesting historical knowledge about the history of avocado cultivation in Peru, and we love for this kind of material to be shared here, but the guidelines ask us to converse curiously, not fulminate or berate fellow community members. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Previously...

Why did we wait so long for the bicycle? (2019) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39774253 - March 2024 (238 comments)

Why did we wait so long for the bicycle? (2019) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25331858 - Dec 2020 (83 comments)

Why did we wait so long for the bicycle? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20443822 - July 2019 (492 comments)

I've replied to them now with the same appeal. But someone else's breach of the guidelines doesn't excuse your own. Rather than escalating when you see a bad comment, you'd be better to flag the comment, or email us (hn@ycombinator.com) so we can see it and take action sooner.

Please don't post ideological flamebait on HN. The guidelines make it clear we're trying for something better here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Earlier this year...

There Will Come Soft Rains (1950) [pdf] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46847297 - Feb 2026 (52 comments)

(I’ve turned off duplicate detection due to the significance of the date.)

Please stop using HN for self-promotion. It's specifically against the guidelines and we have to ban all accounts and domains that engage in it, which we've done now. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Please note the rules at the top of the thread:

Please only post if you personally are part of the hiring company—no recruiting firms or job boards

Please stop attributing false quotes and sentiments to us. The approach we take is necessarily tailored to each case, because each case is different. We spend far more time, effort and care to address these requests than it would take to simply do what you've asked of us, and simply doing what you've asked of us would not address the concern you've expressed. Your case is unusual. We continue to be willing to help. A cooperative rather than belligerent approach will make it easier for everyone to get the best outcome.

The particulars matter a lot in this particular case.

The problem is that each case is different, and there's no one approach that would cover all of the cases. Indeed I can see that it doesn't actually address the concern in this case, now that I've been able to find out what the account is and investigate the issue.

More broadly, this is why it's extremely unfair to make public accusations the way this user has done in this thread. The way we handle these cases actually takes far more time and involves more effort and care than it would take to implement the approach being advocated here.

The main issue was that it was submitted late Friday night SF time, meaning it was overnight or Saturday everywhere in the world when the post had its chance on the front page. The flagging was minimal relative to the vote count and had no effect, and the flamewar detector would have been turned off sooner if moderators saw it sooner (it wasn't really a flamewar, just a lot of comments). It still spent 10 hours on the front page.

None of this is anything out of the ordinary; this kind of thing has always happened. The only real story here is that moderators sleep sometimes.

Its visibility was diminished due to the flamewar detector and most of its front page time being during overnight hours on Friday night/Saturday morning USA time. I've created a new copy to give it some primetime exposure, because it seems like an important enough announcement to warrant it.

> The ability to disown a specific set of content

We are willing to do this.

> Requesting anything more results in them saying “oh yes, we respect users wishes, blah, blah” and no action

We gladly work with users to redact any material that identifies a person or reveals their location, or that otherwise poses risk to their welfare.