Comment by nicbou
2 days ago
I'm not ignorant. I just don't want it in my morning cereal when it's also everywhere else.
Awareness of your country's politics definitely isn't the issue here. I am keenly aware of the US presidents' threats to invade my country.
The issue is the insistence that it has to be discussed in every community, all the time, and that the importance transcends categorisation. Every website just becomes another dumping ground for US politics, and when you bring that up, Americans get indignant.
It's Hacker News. I am here for news for hackers. The guidelines are pretty explicit: "If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic".
To be fair, “guidelines” and “rules” are two different things. There’s no strict prohibition on politics in the guidelines. If you read the whole thing in context, it’s trying to discourage topics that are mundane, frivolous, or vacuous — not to prohibit all politics.
“MOST stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.”
Emphasis mine
Okay so you didn’t really argue against it being on-topic, just that it bothers you / puts you in a bad mood.
IMO it sounds like you’d be better off reading Linux mailing lists and open source READMEs if you want to avoid politics. Just so happens that right now politics is uncomfortable, but it wasn’t 10 years ago when the interest rate was effectively 0% and the US gov and SV had still some semblance of separation.
Then maybe go to a subreddit on embroidery instead? The world is going to pieces and you are worried about your breakfast?
I'm looking at the front page right now and it's entirely "news for hackers."
You had to go out of your way to find this thread and make multiple comments complaining about it.
Just ignore the thread, or hide it and move on.
Yes, because the flagging system works. I'm advocating for things staying that way
One can see flagged stories and the vast majority including the flagged aren't political in nature. Yet people like yourself single out the minority that are, regardless of how civil the discussion is, and flag them anyway.
So the visibility of these stories isn't the issue, and the quality of discussion isn't the issue, since neither matter.
I wonder what is it that people actually object to?
The web site already has a tool for this: The "hide" button. If you don't want to see an article, just click it and go on eating your cereal.
That can be said about any post that goes against the guidelines. At that point, why even have guidelines in the first place?
Guidelines are for comments and post. If I don't comment nor post it's not my job to care about that. If it drains all the curiosity off the site (which I doubt), then I migrate.
I'll make sire not to male the park dirty and maybe pick up a litter or two. But I'm not a ranger.
If you don't like my constant screaming, just get ear plugs
2 replies →