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by monsieurgaufre 169 days ago
The guidelines are bent all the time.

This article is about tech used in illegal ways. How is that not following the guidelines?

1 comments

It sure seems to me like you haven't read the guidelines, because if you had you would have made a different case for why this post should be on-topic, since the guidelines use "crime" as an example of what is off-topic.

The spirit of the guidelines is:

On-topic: fosters intellectual curiosity

Off-topic: derails intellectual curiosity

Your own submission do not follow these guidelines.
I've only made one submission in 2024 and yes it's true it was not appropriate for HN. Since then I've read the guidelines multiple times and learned how to follow them better.

I don't see how a small mistake I made in 2024 changes the fact that the HN guidelines seem to align with a decision to flag this submission.

I think it's a gross omission on the part of whomever wrote the guidelines if discussions about ethics are deemed off topic.

Because many of these events where tech is being used, or abused, in a way that's morally challenging lead to those discussions, and I for one, am very curious why the tech literate crowd of HackerNews is uncomfortable in talking about them, and presents their amorality as "it's against the guidelines".