Comment by dang
19 days ago
> I’ve had my comments removed in the past for saying this, but HN has become toxic the past few years.
We don't remove anyone's comments for reasons like that. In fact, we go out of our way not to, which is one reason that there is so much complaining about HN on HN.
Do you have admin notes on the back end for removal decisions by chance?
If you want a sample, a month ago I wrote on an article about a public art installation of a quirky home in England, I wrote:
“The concept of doing things for the sake of art and fun is lost on most Americans”
I realize i’m complaining about HN on HN now, but this is just one of many cases where I feel like moderation on HN never makes sense (to me).
Looks like this is the comment you're referring to? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44206044.
It was flagged by users, not moderators. Users were correct to flag it, because it's an unsubstantive flamebait comment. (Pejorative generalizations about groups of people, especially large groups like a country, usually count as flamebait.)
Btw, nationalistic flamebait is particularly inflammatory. It sounds like you didn't intend your comment as a provocation, but such effects happen regardless of intent.
That’s the one. I do really appreciate you taking time to check and clarify.
I see where you are coming from, and will absolutely keep this in mind going forward on HN. That in no way was an intended bait (as you also presume) - purely just my observation as a designer who lives in the US and often has to travel abroad to have these sort of whimsy public art experiences.
I also saw just yesterday a comment I replied to had been flagged where the user said ““..the EU was being left behind due to AI regulation..”” - that comment was also flagged and removed…but it came back hours later. I suppose again that may have been user flagged, though a mod reviewed it manually and decided to approve it?
Again, I appreciate the work you and the rest of the mod team are doing - I imagine it’s only gotten more and more challenging over the years to maintain civility here - though I am often left with a fragmented user experience as I never get notified when comments are flagged, what the flagged comments even were, and even worse - entire threads become extremely confusing due to lack of hierarchy of context missing.