Want to make a difference on climate change as a technologist? Feel free to join these communities actively looking for support and with ongoing projects (that are alive):
Hey NeedMoreTea, you're right - so far I haven't posted so much else. Do you have any idea on how to raise awareness of community projects that you would feel are more respectful? 50+ people have joined the projects over the last week, attributing it to threads on HN, so it seems that for some users it is providing some value.
If you're only here because this place has high visibility, not because you're interested in the conversation, you're a spammer no matter how noble your goals are.
I'm (obviously) very involved in climate change and how tech (very represented in the HN community) can play a role in fixing it: many are asking themselves the question on how they can do something about it.
I want to help these people find a spot where they can find like-minded people interested on working on it - and I believe climate change posts on HN are a good match between people concerned about the climate, and who would be interested in joining tech communities working to fix it. I'm all ears to find other ways to give people avenues to work on their "climate" anxiety - let me know if you have better ideas.
If you're very much involved in climate change issues and want to make an effect on the tech crowd then you might as well partake yourself with meaningful comments in the relevant discussions here on Hacker News, offering your wealth of information and expertise to the community. That would further your cause while also giving back to people. Merely spamming is... just spamming.
I'm concerned about the starving people in sub Saharan Africa. It would still be inappropriate for me to constantly spam you about it, regardless of how hungry they are.
Yes. Absolutely. I am concerned about the security/surveillance state. I understand this and try to apologize when I start going on about it.
I love HN, but it's gotten so that if it's a weekend or U.S. holiday, it's climate stories. I'm happy to ignore them, but the site itself is beginning to look a bit preachy on this particular topic.
I think generally joining the discussion is a good thing to do. Especially if you're passionate about these issues that probably means you have more to add than just copy-pasting the same links.
Actively join in the community here? Maybe a little judgement?
It's a topic I find important, so I do try and read those that come by. First time or two it's interesting, when I see 4 or 5 relevant stories break same day, like a couple of days ago, and it looks like I saw half those you found that day... For me at least, that seems like pushing it.
Also, every time I feel compelled to point out that these hobby projects are nice, but what we really need is large scale government action, and that will only come through serious political pressure from voters.
Complaining about posts that are trying to raise awareness of and find solutions to climate meltdown feels a bit like criticising a fire alarm for disturbing your sleep.
Calling this "spam" implies the poster hopes to profit from his actions. In this case, the poster literally wants to save the entire planet.
Well I'm no groth hax0r like OP, but it shouldn't be too difficult for them to sit down and write an actual comment. Like you just did, and like I'm doing right now. Who cares if a lazy spammer has a heart of gold?
There is also https://citizensclimatelobby.org/ which doesn't require any particular skills. Maybe you want to include that in your copypasta for the next thread.
I'm a moderator here. The users replying to you are correct: the comments at https://news.ycombinator.com/posts?id=martincollignon are way over the line and we would have asked you to stop if we had seen them. When someone does this for their startup that's an immediate ban.
The principle of HN is intellectual curiosity: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. Repetition is the enemy of curiosity—readers come here for things they haven't seen before. So is promotion—readers come here for relief from growth marketing, not to be subjected to it. We want users to post to HN when their personal intellectual curiosity is engaged, and not otherwise.
Rallying support for a cause is no different, even if the cause is important—more important than the rest of what's on this site. In fact, that importance means that HN needs even more protection, because otherwise it would be taken over completely by those more important things.
I see from your history it's the only thing you have ever posted on HN.