> One long-standing code is that they moderate YC companies less on HN, allowing criticisms like yours to stand:
Well, that’s what dang says he does. There’s no transparency and no publicly available data that would demonstrate adherence to the rule.
> To HN's credit I haven't seen this rule violated.
I don’t think you’d observe anything different if it were violated.
> I don’t think you’d observe anything different if it were violated.
If the mods were in the practice of moderating like this, yes, it would almost certainly be noticed by someone whose post/comment got deleted.
HN, like every other community on the Internet, relies on trust between the users and mods. If you don't trust them, you can always leave.
> no publicly available data that would demonstrate adherence to the rule.
What kind of data would satisfy you? I imagine any data coming directly from YC would be untrustworthy and third-party data would be incomplete (say, it wouldn't catch content removed before it's published).
Is there a similar data set for other private platforms?