I understand, and lament, that the world is so polarised these days. There's a limit to what we in this little corner of the web can do to correct such powerful global macro trends, but we'll continue to try our best.

If you see things that are unfairly flagged, you can email us and we'll look at them. As long as comments/submissions are within the guidelines, we'll restore them.

We want HN to be a place where people can discuss contentious topics. This is a major reason why I've moved into an expanded role here. I think HN has been, and can continue to be, one of the better places on the internet for discussing contentious topics.

The thing to remember is the guiding principle of HN is curiosity. This place is not meant to be for ideological battle, or for trying to win arguments. It's for conversations where we can learn from each other about things we're curious about.

I've always liked to learn about the opposing side of whatever position I hold. That's why I've found HN to be so valuable, and I want it to be a place people to come to for that reason for many years into the future.

How effective are vouches in this regard?

I'll do that reasonably frequently on both posts and comments, though I'm not sure how effective that is.

One sec, let's look at the endpoint ... First page (30 entries) for each shows, at this writing:

- 13 dead of 30 vouched, submissions.

- 26 dead of 30 vouched, comments.

The endpoints for the uninitiated:

  Posts:  https://news.ycombinator.com/vouched?id=YOUR_USERNAME_HERE
  Comments:  https://news.ycombinator.com/vouched?id=YOUR_USERNAME_HERE&kind=comment

(The URLs are only visible to the owner of the UID, and I presume, moderators as well.)