I have been in HN since many of the current users could even type on a keyboard, and allow me to chip in.
* They have the right to block by referral
* HN has the right to set up that attribute to the links
* I don't think they are arguing about HN doing it, but to do it silently or covertly by someone in the moderation staff
I wont argue about legality or morals. It looks like they have an issue with the current dynamics of comments in here, and it's an honest way of protesting about it.
If the moderation staff does edit the link, title or attributes it should be reflected at least. Like when they add a date to specify that it's from a few years ago.
Of course, HN users could always choose to protest by protesting and sharing and discussing about the articles anyway. But that doesn't make their point any less valid.
I know you're anon trolling, but the authors' names are:
Chitwan Saharia, William Chan, Saurabh Saxena†, Lala Li†, Jay Whang†, Emily Denton, Seyed Kamyar Seyed Ghasemipour, Burcu Karagol Ayan, S. Sara Mahdavi, Rapha Gontijo Lopes, Tim Salimans, Jonathan Ho†, David Fleet†, Mohammad Norouzi
Google AI researchers don't have the final say in what gets published and what doesn't. I think there was a huge controversy when people learned about it last year.
> The Mac App Store gives a hint at what would happen if there was any choice.
There's a choice of app store in Android and almost nobody uses Amazon App Store, F-Droid, Samsung App Store and so on. It's great that they can exist, but I don't think the Mac App Store (which has been neglected since day 1) offers any guidance.
People mostly use what they know or are giving by default. In desktop, be it Windows, Linux or macOS, people aren't used to app stores.
The Amazon store used to have a killer feature where they gave away "bullshit excised" versions of apps (the "Actually Free" program), but sadly that has been discontinued and now the Amazon Store is a completely pointless cut down version of the Play Store.
It's a shame because the old Fire tablets were pretty good for kids, but now the malignant ad and micropayment cancer has returned so it's no good anymore.
The problem with alternate app stores on Android is that before Android 12 (which is still only in beta), other stores couldn't update the apps they install, which is kind of fatal.
You also can't install the various alternate stores themselves through Google Play and Google purposely makes installing APKs a pain for regular people.
And then it's "see, nobody wants them" after they purposely put a wall in front of them which most people can't get past.
So developers still need to be in Google Play to get all the users who can't figure it out, but if everything is in Google Play then even the customers who could figure it out have no incentive to go through the trouble.
Please don't take HN threads straight into flamewar right off the bat.
Cherry-picking the detail you find most provocative and rushing to the comments to copy and complain about it is a recipe for poor-quality discussion. We're trying for better than that on HN. Especially in this case, where the provocation could not be more off topic. You should leave such things where you find them, not drag them in here and set them on fire. I'm sure that wasn't your intent—and really the upvoters do the greater part of the damage—but it is the effect nevertheless.
I'm confused by your comment. Isn't the article stating that the musicians that created the genre (madlib, jaylib) are black American men, which is in direct contrast to the white Europeans running these channels? There are non white Europeans in Europe of course, so it seems interesting to me to hear that they are non black and non American.
What are you adding to that fact that makes you upset?
Edit: not sure why autocorrect turned jaylib into kaylin..
Nujabes kinda popularized the genre as well. It would be weird and unnecessarily racially charged if the author referred to him as a “yellow Japanese man.”
I mean, yes, but only because "yellow" has pejorative connotations that "white" and "black" don't have.
I don't see how saying "white European" is controversial. There are Black Europeans, Asian Europeans, etc., and the author is pointing out that these channels are not run by someone from those groups.
Now to be fair, if I find any part problematic it's the "European" bit; I assumed they meant "white Europeans from western Europe," which is what that phrase connotes to me, but the vagaries of referring to an entire continent are usually best avoided, I think.
It would blow an American blogger's mind to learn that you can live your whole life in certain parts of Eastern Europe and not see a single black person.
> Isn't the article stating that the musicians that created the genre (madlib, kaylin) are black American men
No, the article isn't saying that, that's what makes the sentence cited by parent seem so gratuitous to a random reader like me.
(There is a section that mentions the names of some musicians who contributed to the genre, but without specifying their nationality or racial background).
PS It seems that the name Kaylin is not in the article.
Boy you should really look into racism and ethnic violence in Europe, because I think you'd be shocked to learn that "black" and "white" DO actually mean things to Europeans. To be fair, Europe is a diverse place and I don't intend to paint with a broad brush; things are worse some places than others. But man, every time someone pops in and says "those are American problems" it makes me cringe.
Ethnic yes, but that includes lot of "violence" between whites of different nations. Swiss people look down on all surrounding "poorer" nations, Romanians vs Hungarians, etc.
