This is part of the beauty of HN. By not having an explicit mechanism for combating trolls, it encourages the very best way of fighting them!
Recently, there was a thread both on reddit and HN about Danish energy policy. Though I favor environmentalist policy (I drive a car on Biodiesel, and I'm switching to a pure solar/wind/hydro electricity provider) I was downvoted on reddit because I mentioned that Denmark is a lot smaller than the US, and everyone assumed that I am anti-environmental. By contrast, there was a very well reasoned discussion on HN where I actually learned something. It seems obvious to me that something is happening right here. No need to change right now.
By not having an explicit mechanism for combating trolls, it encourages the very best way of fighting them!
Well said. I will endeavor to keep the faith.
There's no question that we must be careful not to break things that seem to be working. I haven't been to Reddit or Digg in over a year, so I have no idea how bad it is out there, but it sounds like HN is still an unusually sane place.
Recently, there was a thread both on reddit and HN about Danish energy policy. Though I favor environmentalist policy (I drive a car on Biodiesel, and I'm switching to a pure solar/wind/hydro electricity provider) I was downvoted on reddit because I mentioned that Denmark is a lot smaller than the US, and everyone assumed that I am anti-environmental. By contrast, there was a very well reasoned discussion on HN where I actually learned something. It seems obvious to me that something is happening right here. No need to change right now.