Comment by hagbard_c
4 months ago
I used to have an account on that site as well and left for the same reason: repeated messages telling me I had been flagged and I needed to reconsider when I dared to venture too far outside the desired narrative. There will be many others who have made or will make the same decision which leaves sites like this with a population which is mostly ideologically cohesive. Maybe that is a good thing for those sites and maybe the participants feel 'safe' in such an environment but it surely is lacking in stimulating curiosity and widening one's intellectual horizon.
Sounds familiar, except here there's no notification when you get flagged/deaded/shadowbanned.
At least HN allows you to come back under another name and with that is less at risk of totally succumbing to the echo chamber mentality. It also does not tie new users to existing ones nor are existing users who happen to invite new users who are deemed to be 'problematic' punished for those invitations.
> At least HN allows you to come back under another name
You can also come back under the same account, which is what I did. I emailed dang, and promised to respect the site's guidelines this time.
Lobste.rs on the other hand has terrible moderation, with moderators arguably being from one political clique. You can find details about the ridiculous ban they issued on my account in this X thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40166912#40176320
1 reply →