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by datsci_est_2015
1 day ago
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Weak response imo. Shame is a powerful tool and lots of people on this forum should feel more shame for what they do. In fact, I see quite a bit of shaming that occurs here on HN when someone says something completely out of pocket (in fact, in a way you are shaming both me and the original poster) - but that rarely gets called out by moderators because it’s already accepted as not impolite. I often see shaming when users are outright racist - which to be clear I also agree with the use of shame in that instance. The moderation is not unbiased in this regard. |
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If we allow ourselves to feel virtuous by shaming others for things we unilaterally decree as being pernicious, we're on the fast track to hell.
For most people here, "what they do", they do because they need to make a living via the skills they have in an often-brutal job market, as do most people here, and they do it by working on things that are legal, and in the case of advertising, one of the few ways anyone has discovered for generating income for online products (and indeed almost all media products for decades before that).
To attack someone for doing something legal and widespread without offering any viable alternative is just lazy argumentation and incurious, low-quality discussion. It gives the shamer the feeling of being morally superior and pure, whilst avoiding the work of thinking about and articulating better ways that the online industry can generate income. All of this is what HN is designed to optimize against, and why shaming is never encouraged here.
The same applies to our moderation. Our role here is to point out where people have breached the guidelines, and remind them what the guidelines are, and in many cases, explain in some detail how they could get their point across while observing the guidelines. Everything we're asking people to do should be in the spirit of promoting healthy discussion and should be actionable.
Nowhere should you find HN moderators taking pleasure in shaming anyone. That's not what we're about. We're here to cultivate curious conversation, and a big part of that is posting comments that range from polite reminders and educational explanations, to less frequent stern warnings and then to occasional bans.
If you can find any instance where we stray from that, you're welcome to point it out.