You're defending indefensible conduct. These "protestors" were threatening board members, stating "We know where you live" etc. They weren't politely and respectfully arguing over funding disparities between sports and the math club. They were instigated by right-wing media that touts ridiculous stories of kids using litter boxes in classrooms, of trans kids assaulting others in restrooms, and other non-events.
> No sir, you are. You're absolutely fine with rampant sexual misconduct in our schools and pretend none of your politically inconvenient crimes have occurred while "the other guys" are evil for demanding their children be in a safe learning environment.
"You are absolutely fine with rampant sexual misconduct"?
That's a pretty harsh thing to accuse someone of, especially in the context of a discussion of people writing to schools they are not related to to complain about LGBT+ topics being discussed. Going from that to rampant sexual misconduct, also, feels like a bit of a leap.
If you see a post that ought to have been moderated but hasn't been, the likeliest explanation is that we didn't see it. You can help by flagging it or emailing us at [email protected].
idk Dan, maybe playing nice with the person you banned hours earlier who came back to throw racial insults at you isn't gonna lead to a redemption arc.
I should have been clearer; being nice to an obvious troll that you banned just a short while earlier is likely to invite more trolling rather than less, which negatively impacts everyone else. It's great that you're not taking it personally, but it doesn't seem good for HN.
Ah I see. Yes, that's a risk, but I don't see it playing out in practice and I have to prioritize direct experience with HN. The thing that matters here is not to be nice to trolls or even to convince them of anything (though that's a nice, if rare, side effect), but rather to answer criticisms in a way that the bulk of the community finds reasonable and fair.
This is one of the biggest things we can do to bolster the health of the body politic or commons (or pick whatever term is good) here. It pays off hugely in good will and good faith. If the median HN reader sees me going out of my way to be neutral and answering criticism reasonably, that's a win. It's even more of a win when the criticism was rudely delivered.
In my experience, it's important to be nice (or at least neutral) when doing that, because otherwise the signals get crossed—am I providing accurate information or venting frustration? The hivemind definitely doesn't like it when the moderator does the latter, so I try to avoid it to the extent possible (and I suck at it a lot of the time.)
