Nerds To Valleywag: Stay Off Our Site!

Hacker News, the Reddit-like tech/coder news site run by startup funders Y Combinator, is in the middle of making an interesting policy decision: Ban stories from Gawker Media's tech gossip blog Valleywag from its site... or not?

Several users have suggested we ban Valleywag, not for anything in particular that they write about, but because their articles [sic] always such deliberate linkbait. I personally agree. In 99% of Valleywag articles, the most interesting thing is the title. But I don't want to be accused of censorship, so I thought I'd ask for opinions first.

So far, 414 people have voted. About 60% think it's a good idea to ban Valleywag stories from the site.

We vote no. Banning a specific outlet's stories from a news aggregator is a losing idea; it only lowers the value of the index. Sooner or later Valleywag will write something particularly informative or amusing and Hacker News readers will miss out.

Plus, we like the guys! In fact, we'll be hanging out with Wag-In-Chief Owen Thomas and his underling Nicholas Carlson in a few hours at Nowhere Bar near Union Square. Join us!