Comment by Teever
1 day ago
> Why do people think we're motivated to “suppress” negative stories about A16Z?
I think a more charitable interpretation of this kind of argument is that the money and power that entities like A16Z have make the possibility of corruption of endeavours like HN trivial.
In light of the ease in which a wealthy entity like A16Z can exert influence over an entity like HN and the track records of various A16Z adjacent/similar people doing similar things to other HN-like entities it's very natural that people are concerned about the possibility of similar things happening here.
Like it or not as an editor at HN you're in a position of power and influence and others with far greater power would certainly leverage what you have here if suited their interests.
Avoiding even the appearance of impropriety is no easy task especially in this medium and I don't envy you in taking it on, but it's an essential part of something like HN. If the users in aggregate don't trust the moderation process or the administrators then this all sort of falls apart and the interesting discussion suffers.
> money and power that entities like A16Z have make the possibility of corruption of endeavours like HN trivial
What does this mean? Why would a VC firm like this "corrupt" HN and how would they do it? And why would we allow them to do it? What would be the motivation of us moderators to allow it?
I don't believe that you got a call from Marc Andreessen to organize a moderation approach that benefits them. Instead I believe that your blind spots created moderation decisions that limited discourse. And it worries me that the reaction is to complain about kafkaesque logic.
Headlines are important. And given that HN has a policy of moderators editing headlines it is really important that mods do a very good job not distorting headlines. This means that your evaluation of the importance of each word in the headline is really important. It concerned me that in your mind the reference to a16z was the least important material in the headline when I suspect that a typical HN participant would see it as among the most important material in the headline.
The title change was consistent with the guidelines, which it’s my job to uphold. Then I changed it when the community made its feelings known.
You’ve continued with the unfalsifiable claims while avoiding the one question that matters:
How does it materially benefit an outside VC firm if the title on an HN post about one of their portfolio companies excludes their name? What is the tangible economic impact?