Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by calebm 12 days ago
Just because it's computer-assisted doesn't mean the computer is doing the teaching (any more than saying a gun killed someone). The people behind it are the teachers, and the computer-assisting is a way to amplify that teacher's reach (like a YouTube video).
2 comments
alexsouthmayd 12 days ago
Great point. The responsibility and consequences of the tech (both bad and good) rest upon the humans who designed it.
link
_doctor_love 12 days ago
[flagged]
link
dang 12 days ago
Your GP comment was borderline against the site guidelines, since you basically went straight to shallow dismissal, flamebait, and generic ideological battle. I didn't respond with a moderation comment because I understand this topic brings up strong feelings and there's a lot to say on all sides.

Your reply here, though, is flat-out against the site guidelines and it's not ok to post like that to HN, least of all in someone's launch thread (whether it's a YC startup or not).

No more of this please. You're welcome to make your substantive points thoughtfully, but if you'd first review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and take the intended spirit of this site more to heart, we'd appreciate it.

Edit: your previous comment was a personal attack as well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48981467. Please stop this.

link
_doctor_love 12 days ago
> your previous comment was a personal attack as well:

Brother, I meant what I wrote.

That said, I'll cool off for a bit. I'm not here to rain on anyone's parade but as you said, products like this stir extremely strong feelings on my end. I find the framing offensive, exploitative, and dehumanizing.

link
dang 12 days ago
Personal attacks aren't ok whether you meant what you wrote or not.

I get that you feel strongly about this - probably most of us share these feelings in some form; I know I do. We just need to talk about the topic thoughtfully and respectfully, and not assume that someone with different views doesn't care about kids (for example) or doesn't share the same concerns.

Let's put it this way: I appreciate the thoughtful component of your comments - we just need you to cool off on the attacking component.

link
_doctor_love 12 days ago
Clearly we have different definitions of what constitutes an attack, that said, I know you're fighting an eternal uphill battle on HN so I'll rest my case.

I will say that I find some of this kind of moderation very confusing. I feel that I often see folks going way harder than anything I've said today and there's no moderation hand-slaps visible. Possibly the sensitivity is greater here since it's a Launch HN thread, so I appreciate that. But please take my feedback for what it's worth and reflect on it a bit.

link
dang 12 days ago
> very confusing. I feel that I often see folks going way harder than anything I've said today and there's no moderation hand-slaps visible.

You're quite right and of course it's confusing. But it has a simple, unsatisfying explanation: we can't read everything that gets posted here, let alone moderate it all. There's far too much for us to read even 10% of what gets posted here.

If you see a post that ought to have been moderated but hasn't been, the likeliest explanation is that we didn't see it. You can help by flagging it or emailing us at hn@ycombinator.com.

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

Btw, I'm going to try an experiment and respond to your GP comment with a non-moderation reply, just because I find the topic interesting, and also in the hope of communicating what I said above: the thoughtful component of the conversation is fine. (No obligation to reply of course.)

link