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0 pointschc12y ago0 comments

Yes, human rights matter to everyone. So do urination and defecation — we quite literally could not live without them — but those aren't appropriate in all situations either.

When I say something doesn't belong on Hacker News, I don't mean it's unimportant or doesn't matter. I just mean that it isn't what this site is for. There are many, many stories that are relevant and important to me personally that are still not appropriate for every site I go to.

Think about it this way: Would you go on a My Little Pony fan site and post this stuff there? Human rights are just as crucial for My Little Pony fans, but it's easier to recognize that they aren't appropriate for a single-topic site. Hacker News is not a single-topic site, but it is still a site with a focus. If you look at the guidelines, politics are explicitly called out as being off-topic.

0 comments

collyw12y ago

I read political stories here, as the responses are generally a lot better thought out than the kind you will get on Reddit. (To be fair you get decent responses on Reddit, but they are tucked away amongst a lot more noise).

chcOP12y ago

I don't doubt it. A lot of people obviously do. My point is that it is not desirable for people to want to come to Hacker News to talk about politics.

GuerraEarth12y ago

I see your point, chc. And you are right. Talking politics on a site like HN is defacto undesirable. But the NSA dogs made feces mandatory conversation--if we want to live our lives *shit free--and so the door once opened just gets wider. It is sad. All this stuff is really sad.

moocowduckquack12y ago

People do talk about politics though. They do it everywhere all over the place and even those who claim to not want to talk about politics end up talking about the politics of not talking politics. I am not sure it is possible to stop them.

mschuster9112y ago

I believe this is because Reddit is like 4chan... everyone knows it, everyone uses it - including those who are just plain stupid.

HN, in contrast, is mostly known in educated circles and so does not attract as many trolls and idiots as Reddit does.

mschuster9112y ago

Granted, this specific submission can be qualified as off-topic under the guidelines. But I seriously doubt this for any NSA-related submissions, given their impact on the whole US tech/startup sector.

chcOP12y ago

The NSA submissions are more of a mixed bag. A lot of them are still not a good fit as they are more outrage than information, but yeah, a lot of them are relevant to the site. (I still think even the relevant stories have a negative impact on the signal:noise ratio by encouraging people to post important-but-irrelevant stories like this one, but you're right, the NSA stories do belong here.)

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0 pointschc12y ago0 comments

Yes, human rights matter to everyone. So do urination and defecation — we quite literally could not live without them — but those aren't appropriate in all situations either.

0 comments

collyw12y ago

chcOP12y ago

I don't doubt it. A lot of people obviously do. My point is that it is not desirable for people to want to come to Hacker News to talk about politics.

GuerraEarth12y ago

moocowduckquack12y ago

mschuster9112y ago

I believe this is because Reddit is like 4chan... everyone knows it, everyone uses it - including those who are just plain stupid.

HN, in contrast, is mostly known in educated circles and so does not attract as many trolls and idiots as Reddit does.

mschuster9112y ago

chcOP12y ago

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