<story><title>Two HN Announcements</title><url>http://blog.ycombinator.com/two-hn-announcements</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dang</author><text>Please don&amp;#x27;t worry about this. It really is just like flagging. We only take away flagging rights if someone repeatedly misuses them—never for one random thing.&lt;p&gt;I wouldn&amp;#x27;t have even included the bit about taking away vouching rights except I know that the question &amp;quot;What if people just vouch for all the bad comments&amp;quot; was going to come up otherwise.&lt;p&gt;(Also, I don&amp;#x27;t think I&amp;#x27;ve been promoted? But thanks—that&amp;#x27;s particularly meaningful coming from a seasoned veteran of the early Reddit...)</text></item><item><author>raldi</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt; If we notice abusive vouches, we&amp;#x27;ll take away vouching rights&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;That might scare some people away from vouching. Could you clarify whether it&amp;#x27;ll be more like, &amp;quot;If you wrongly vouch for even one single thing, we&amp;#x27;ll silently and permanently remove your vouching ability forever with no possible recourse&amp;quot; or more like, &amp;quot;If you show a repeated pattern of bad vouching, we&amp;#x27;ll reach out to you and explain what you&amp;#x27;re doing wrong, and only if it continues, take away your vouching privileges as a last resort, perhaps only temporarily&amp;quot; (or somewhere in between those extremes)?&lt;p&gt;P.S. I couldn&amp;#x27;t be happier to hear about Dan&amp;#x27;s promotion. He has an expert touch for community management, and (I learned after an opportunity to join him for beers one night) some deep wisdom on the subject, too.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dangrossman</author><text>&amp;gt; We only take away flagging rights if someone repeatedly misuses them—never for one random thing.&lt;p&gt;My flag link disappeared one day without notice or explanation, and stayed disappeared for a year or so. I continue to fear using the flag link, even when I think something should be flagged. There&amp;#x27;s no chance I&amp;#x27;m going to vouch for something other people have flagged: I&amp;#x27;d never have enough certainty that I&amp;#x27;m more right than they are in your eyes. I value my ability to participate in this community too much to help moderate it under threat of punishment for doing so poorly.&lt;p&gt;Re: the replies below, the worst that can happen is not losing the vouch button, it&amp;#x27;s being silently shadowbanned for something else, when that wouldn&amp;#x27;t have happened if you hadn&amp;#x27;t put yourself on the admin&amp;#x27;s vouch review list for extra scrutiny. I already fear that happening any time I participate in one of those &amp;quot;what are you working on &amp;#x2F; what are your side projects&amp;quot; threads and include a link to my site.</text></comment>
<story><title>Two HN Announcements</title><url>http://blog.ycombinator.com/two-hn-announcements</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>dang</author><text>Please don&amp;#x27;t worry about this. It really is just like flagging. We only take away flagging rights if someone repeatedly misuses them—never for one random thing.&lt;p&gt;I wouldn&amp;#x27;t have even included the bit about taking away vouching rights except I know that the question &amp;quot;What if people just vouch for all the bad comments&amp;quot; was going to come up otherwise.&lt;p&gt;(Also, I don&amp;#x27;t think I&amp;#x27;ve been promoted? But thanks—that&amp;#x27;s particularly meaningful coming from a seasoned veteran of the early Reddit...)</text></item><item><author>raldi</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt; If we notice abusive vouches, we&amp;#x27;ll take away vouching rights&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;That might scare some people away from vouching. Could you clarify whether it&amp;#x27;ll be more like, &amp;quot;If you wrongly vouch for even one single thing, we&amp;#x27;ll silently and permanently remove your vouching ability forever with no possible recourse&amp;quot; or more like, &amp;quot;If you show a repeated pattern of bad vouching, we&amp;#x27;ll reach out to you and explain what you&amp;#x27;re doing wrong, and only if it continues, take away your vouching privileges as a last resort, perhaps only temporarily&amp;quot; (or somewhere in between those extremes)?&lt;p&gt;P.S. I couldn&amp;#x27;t be happier to hear about Dan&amp;#x27;s promotion. He has an expert touch for community management, and (I learned after an opportunity to join him for beers one night) some deep wisdom on the subject, too.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>raldi</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt; I don&amp;#x27;t think I&amp;#x27;ve been promoted&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Editorial independence is a big vote of confidence; they don&amp;#x27;t toss that set of keys to just any old schmuck.</text></comment>