In general, we'll moderate comments only for civility. They have up and down arrows, so I expect the community to take care of quality that way. That often seems to be the case here, where a comment will be buried under an avalanche of downvotes.
Exactly. It's kind of annoying to see that omniscient overlords are censoring people's comments -- but the people being censored get the idea that their comments aren't welcome and then they either shape up or go away. HN has stayed pretty readable as the once-enjoyable Reddit has become the biggest cesspool of stupidity I've ever had the misfortune of reading. (Can you guess by my tone that I used to really love Reddit but it's just not good anymore? It makes me sad.)
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In general, we'll moderate comments only for civility. They have up and down arrows, so I expect the community to take care of quality that way. That often seems to be the case here, where a comment will be buried under an avalanche of downvotes.
I expect the community to take care of quality that way
Have you seen Reddit? This doesn't work.
Does Reddit moderate for civility? I was under the impression that they didn't moderate at all.
To an extent. I've seen comments on HN actively killed by the editors. (To see 'em, turn on "showdead".)
So it's probably worth it to delete content that would repel the type of clientele you'd like to attract.
Exactly. It's kind of annoying to see that omniscient overlords are censoring people's comments -- but the people being censored get the idea that their comments aren't welcome and then they either shape up or go away. HN has stayed pretty readable as the once-enjoyable Reddit has become the biggest cesspool of stupidity I've ever had the misfortune of reading. (Can you guess by my tone that I used to really love Reddit but it's just not good anymore? It makes me sad.)