Ask HN: Why is there such little political discourse on HN at the moment?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42956993

by creativenolo • 1 year ago

15 36 1 year ago

news.ycombinator.com

Seems like there are few stories or comments around the many tech related issues regarding DEI, investments, company pivots, trade, and geo-political territories. Not that there should be more, but it seems like there is less.

talldayo2• 1 year ago

Most of it is visible by enabling showdead on your profile

breckenedge2• 1 year ago

Because they are off topic. See paragraph 2 here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

anigbrowl2• 1 year ago

They're not off topic if they are 'evidence of some interesting new phenomenon'. As a long-time HN user you are surely as aware of that caveat as I am.

Politics has always made up a large part of HN discourse. You can verify this by hitting the firebase API, or just use the search field at the bottom of the page and look into some past discussions around terms like 'Iraq' or 'guantanamo'.

creativenolo3• 1 year ago

In fairness, I don’t think paragraph 2 excludes discourse on the topics I mentioned. It certainly hasn’t in the past.

I keep reading about tech news on websites where I’d have expected so see it here first: that was a reason to ask.

WheelsAtLarge• 1 year ago

Tech and Tech bros' politics are dominating the headlines. It's highly relevant since whatever happens will dictate a big part of tech's future. Deciding what programming language to use can't be the only HN subject at this point.

breckenedge2• 1 year ago

And the beards all grow longer overnight.

anigbrowl2• 1 year ago

Flagging rings, basically.

nico2• 1 year ago

Two main factors:

* automatic downranks and delisting from FP, algorithmically by HN

* manual flagging by the users

@dang says there’s little to no manual moderation, but over the years the site has been tuned to only allow a little bit of political discussion

Here are a few useful recent comments by @dang about it:

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42949237

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911011

creativenolo3• 1 year ago

Super interesting.

Since some people perceive discussion quality to be (relatively) high on HN

It’s really not at the moment on so many discussion worthy topics. I get it, there will be the same old tropes and opinions but HN does a great job of cutting through the noise and unveiling interesting perspectives.

I’m surprised and a little disappointed. And left wondering where to find the discussions on such topics that are worth reading.

nico2• 1 year ago

Same. Let me know if you find a place or have any ideas on how to start one

Unknown• 1 year ago

tayo424• 1 year ago

flagging is being abused IMO once i realized its happening

dredmorbius5• 1 year ago

Voting, moderation, and flagging are affordances with predictable uses. Even the designers of such systems may find themselves being told the equivalent of "you're holding it wrong" (this occure to me some time back in an earlier life).

I'd generally defer to actual use as well-known reality, rather than unqualified abuse. If that causes problems with platform goals, then the system should build in checks on such impacts, as HN has.

BOOSTERHIDROGEN2• 1 year ago

I am wondering how Dang manages a continuous stream of posts. Does he monitor it full-time?

dang2• 1 year ago

I'm not the only mod (just the only one who posts publicly) - but even if you put all of us together, we can't monitor everything that gets posted here. We rely on users to bring things to our attention.

Does that answer your question?

leotravis10• 1 year ago

Not to mention that so many posts that people share got shut down and censored by the mods and admins after users flag it to death.

They don't want to admit it but the truth is that they're all in to the current coup that's happening in Washington right now. That's turning into a fact every single day now.

ggm• 1 year ago

I would say (despite my own personal engagement) that its about the right amount.

I say despite.. because I judge engagement as a net negative much of the time: I prefer to read HN than write into it, and when I write, I judge myself harshly. I'm writing too much into the politics discussions.

morpheos1373• 1 year ago

I think Elon Musk is funny as hell. Snake oil salesmen attract each other. I am apolitical btw. It's just funny to me how people buy into politics tribes as meaningful when the reality is just groups of primates jockeying for power the same as for the last several million years, except now some blow hards have twitter.

basementcat2• 1 year ago

Maybe you can help explain how cutting funding for projects that fight malaria is funny.

morpheos1373• 1 year ago

1. Malaria has been around longer than homo sapiens.

2. It will almost certainly be around after homo sapiens.

3. Are these projects in the USA?

4. Is anything preventing NGOs from more efficiently taking up the slack?

5. Why is malaria important to you of all things?

6. Have you ever had to worry about contacting malaria?

7. Isn't this good for ivermectin manufacturers?

dang2• 1 year ago

There's quite a bit. Here's a recent sample:

20k federal workers take "buyout" so far, official says - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42950790 - Feb 2025 (456 comments)

The FAA’s Hiring Scandal - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42944203 - Feb 2025 (537 comments)

What's happening inside the NIH and NSF - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42940257 - Feb 2025 (1422 comments)

GitHub reveals how software engineers are purging federal databases - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42936940 - Feb 2025 (308 comments)

Payments crisis of 2025: Not “read only” access anymore - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42933219 - Feb 2025 (634 comments)

The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42910910 - Feb 2025 (2901 comments)

CDC: Unpublished manuscripts mentioning certain topics must be pulled or revised - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42905937 - Feb 2025 (714 comments)

NSF starts vetting all grants to comply with executive orders - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42886661 - Jan 2025 (485 comments)

That's not a comprehensive list—there are quite a few others—but whether it's the right amount of not is something each HN user will have a different opinion about.

archagon• 1 year ago

You should consider https://news.ycombinator.com/active the real front page.

creativenolo3• 1 year ago

Wow - thanks.

red-iron-pine• 1 year ago

Officially: no politics. That rule is not always enforced.

Likely: the owners of ycombinator and hackernews have very specific views and connections to people in the tech industry with very specific views. Tech Bros are taking over, and ycombinator is squarely in the tech-bro camp -- that's the point of the site!

Ask HN: Why is there such little political discourse on HN at the moment?

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