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0 pointsdang4y ago0 comments

If there are many posts with inaccurate titles, that's because we didn't see them. If you skim these 500 comments you'll see that we make a habit of editing inaccurate titles: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... - and that's just a small fraction of the cases. Also these 250: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que.... HN users are pretty adamant about title accuracy: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que....

> Would you like to change the John Carmack post to include his entire tweet as the title?

No, "John Carmack on JPEG" strikes me as an accurate title for that post, and in any case the entire tweet wouldn't fit HN's 80 char limit. When users think there's an inaccuracy or come up with a better (more accurate and neutral) title, we're usually happy to make a change.

> YC moderation here on a YC-related post is not fair

The principle, as I explained above, is that we moderate HN less when YC or a YC startup is involved (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...). Less, however, does not mean not at all - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que.... That would be a huge loophole. In this case I did the minimum to correct a false statement in the title and was hands off after that.

> It’s also unfair that this reply is placed above substantive discussion

That would be true if we had placed it there, but users upvoted it there.

0 comments

choppaface4y ago

As a past moderator for an unrelated forum, there’s a careful balance between “reducing confusion” and “fanning the flamewar using a moderator’s outsized leverage.” I really don’t see how the reply here strikes that balance. Moreover, my post here was +3 but is suddenly now -3 after Dang’s reply.

Dang, I’m sure you have a lot of work to do, but I recommend you take a critical look at how much of that “work” you’re actually creating for yourself. The behavior I’ve observed here really underscores the untrustworthiness of other things I’ve seen from YC founders and employees.

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