[TheLoneWolfling]

For one, I do not consider this OK.

For two, declaring rules and then declaring that no-one is allowed to talk about said rules sets a very dangerous precedent.

For three, pretty darn ironic that both this and http://deathtobullshit.com/ are on the front page at the same time.

[brudgers]

Meta discussions, such as this thread, are ok from time to time. But they don't really make anyone smarter. HN exists for YC's purposes, if those don't align with mine, then I am free to vote with my metaphorical feet and literal clicks [or rather non-clicks]. Standards are what makes a community and there are many others with different standards and precedents.

[jfoster]

My interpretation isn't that no one can talk about the rules, just that the comments on an article should be about the article content. You could still post your own Ask HN to discuss the rules.

[derefr]

A lot of off topic comments would be better served being made into full-blown blog posts (even if the author has no blog otherwise; one-off pages like Gists work fine for this) and then submitted. If HN wants to talk about the topic, the submitted page will get voted up like any other article, and discussion will ensue.

[brudgers]

Generally, Ask HN topics shouldn't be meta discussions [nevermind meta complaints]. There's a feature request policy, and it's a potential conduit for bright solutions to policy problems that bypass debate.

[dang]

We wouldn't bother bringing this up if it weren't a major and increasing problem in the threads, such as https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10178012.

It's also easily derived from the values of this site, which are no secret (see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10179248) and have not changed.

[TheLoneWolfling]

I think it is a subject that should be brought up. I do not think that a flat-out "stop complaining about it" is the proper response - and, to be frank, it disappoints me that that is the approach you seem to have decided to take.

It very much reminds me of an ostrich sticking its head in the sand - namely, that the response of a link aggregator to more and more of the links it aggregates disappearing is to say "no it's not, there are <insert increasingly complex and increasingly quasi-legal workarounds here>, now stop complaining".

It's not just now that should be worrying, it's the continuation of the trend. And a website as major as this within its domain is one of the few that has more than a snowball's chance in Hell to divert said trend, assuming it acts in a timely fashion. But this is just waiting around like a lobster in a pot of water being slowly heated.

[dang]

Oh we probably agree more than disagree about the trend, and it's certainly on-topic for HN in the sense that stories about it and debates about it are welcome here in their own context. Choking other threads like weeds is another matter. We've noticed that becoming more of a problem lately, hence this post.

[TheLoneWolfling]

So is it acceptable to post separate threads about the topic of paywalls, then? Because if so, please make that explicit. At the very least, I did not get that impression, and reading through this thread it would appear I am not alone. And - assuming it is acceptable - how? Ask HN does not seem appropriate. Tell HN does not seem appropriate. HN doesn't generally have discussion threads on their own right. We are being told that other threads are not appropriate. The HN guidelines say "Please don't post on HN to ask or tell us something (e.g. to ask us questions about Y Combinator, or to ask or complain about moderation)." So where is appropriate, then?

Also, the reason why said discussions are starting to "choke other threads like weeds" is because it is rather hard to have a discussion about something when one has to resort to increasingly-complex and quasi-legal methods (if not downright illegal in some places) just to read the content people are trying to have a discussion about.

[roarktoohey]

Write blog post about it and submit it?

[TheLoneWolfling]

Again, "Please don't post on HN to ask or tell us something (e.g. to ask us questions about Y Combinator, or to ask or complain about moderation)."