[dredmorbius]

I invite you to search for dang's admonishments against flamebait and generic tangents, and see if you might be able to suss out a pattern and/or rationale for that moderation. Here's the site search:

<https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...>

Keep in mind that such acts are judgement calls, and I'll occasionally differ strongly with dang's take. For the most part, however, I find his moderation appropriate. Another point is that most HN moderation is actually performed by members, not mods, and admonisments (my term for his moderation comments) constitute only a very small number of moderator-specific interactions.

The prime directive of HN is "intellectual curiosity" (<https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...>), and ... regardless of how you feel about it ... taking a late hit on an accomplished author for one act on his obituary ... tends to be read poorly.

(Those whose lives were overwhelmingly negative may get different treatment. There've been a few recent obits that hit this mark in my view.)

And no, I'm not a mod, nor do I know what others' motivations are. I'm just pointing out the most likely guidelines and moderator rationales which are likely at play here.