Also, I found this exchange on Hacker News fascinating.
I think the relevant guideline puts it well:
Comments should get more civil and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.
The inadequacy of this guideline and couching most moderation along its lines is why the problem and âdynamicsâ as tptacek puts it, exist in the first place.
The site selects for and breeds civil, substantive racists and misogynists (along with the hyper-sensitized responses) like a hospital breeds antibiotic-resistant superbugs.
I can see selects for, but breeds seems a stretch. Unless you mean breeds civility within racists and misogynists, which seems beneficial?
Yes, mostly the second thing. Itâs the opposite of beneficial - because the guidelines say âdonât be a meanie/obvious blowhardâ and most people who get called out for anything are called out for something along those lines, bigots who adapt to these can and sometimes do last on the site for years.
HNâs mods put in a great deal of effort in and are surprisingly successful at containing the far more basic and common human impulse to be a jerk to strangers online. They have rules, they enforce them, they publicly shame rulebreakers, etc. You are explicitly not allowed to be an asshat on HN and everyone knows it. The place would be better if âdonât be a bigotâ got the same treatment. All caps users and transgressors against HNâs fundamentalist quotation marks cult are exposed to more public opprobrium than your typical âhuman biodiversityâ sea lion.
I had never thought about it this way, but heâs right â a racist, misogynist, or bigoted line of argument is far more dangerous when it is draped in the robes of overt civility. So to the extent that we are teaching people âŚ
Hey, itâs OK to say racist / sexist / bigoted things, as long as you say them in a civil, substantive manner
⌠we are indirectly creating much more powerful racists / sexists / bigots , who will become immune to less sophisticated moderators who will only see âwell, what this person is saying is kind of morally abhorrent, but they arenât saying it in a mean wayâŚâ
