Comment by pjscott
3 years ago
> How do you keep out the YT commenters, Fox News or r/politics commenters, etc?
Have clear written criteria for what constitutes virtuous and unvirtuous conduct, and make it clear that commenters can be banned for the sort of angry, low-quality discourse that's the norm on those platforms. Then enforce it, with temporary bans at first and permabans for repeated or particularly egregious offenses. Most people won't want to be mods, but hopefully enough will.
I'm not speaking hypothetically here; I'm describing how moderation works on /r/TheMotte. I won't comment on any of the opinions expressed there since that's not the point: the point is that it can be done. It's existence proof that you can have a large discussion forum talking about controversial topics without it turning into an ideological monoculture or a cesspool.
This is already the case here; and still the flame wars get out of control.
One thing to keep in mind; the moderation on HN is absolutely designed to steer the conversation in a direction (one in line with YCs mission / vision). Most political topics that veer from centrist make-nice are not in line with that direction.
YCs moderation is a paid, editorial position. This ain’t Reddit, and to the degree that HN has regular users in the mod loop, it’s usually in a democratized way (flagging / vouching comments, the way up/downvotes work, etc.) The goals are different, and HN absolutely becomes a cesspool on any political topic when it’s left to simmer (lest you think the commenters here are of any higher quality than elsewhere on the Internet — in my experience HN tends to have more user crossover with Reddit than anywhere).