I think I agree with ya, Although I remember some VPN company related to liberachat ownership where something offtopic wasn't handled such way. In general, I think that if both you and dang say something consistent. Then I do trust you and hackernews moderation for being fairly transparent about it and I really appreciate it. It could very well be that I remember that instant where off-topic=on-topic and considering you guys are human (Underappreciated humans keeping this site usually clean!!)

I think that some of it is okay to happen and I won't question further about it. We can have some minor differences about Off-topic and On-topic and I am okay with this difference and I really appreciate the work done towards Hackernews by the moderation team in aggregate :)

And in essence yeah, off-topic and manual downweighing is still pretty okay with me for what its worth and it seems to be something impartial and not a preferential treatment to it being YC company so I suppose that's fair even :)

> Criticisms of the company for past conduct are valid, and we're leaving the criticisms here for everyone to see as per our long-standing policy. But it should be viewed in context: a thread about that event already had 11 hours on the front page 12 days ago. They have been heavily criticized for what they did, are carrying reputational consequences, and they should have learned that the HN community and GitHub users and management are strongly disapproving of this kind of activity. They should be given the chance to learn and reform and be judged for what they do now and into the future.

I feel like I am quite a forgiving person actually. They haven't responded to any comments on that thread or on these comments. Now, that could be because they don't want to get themselves into any controversy and that's totally fine by me Tomhow.

My issue is that You mention how they were critized for what they did 12 days ago and you ask me to judge them for what they are now but 12 days isn't a great period of time if you may understand and the only reason they stopped was because they got caught in public essentially. So its even hard for me to forgive them especially when I had realized that they bought the domain intentionally a month ago so it was the intention / pre-meditated thought on doing what they were doing and going ahead with it that I had found issue with. Accidents happen and people are really forgiving actually but its hard to forgive something pre-meditated in such short period of time.

And I took a few hours of my life trying to get this point across in this thread simply because I want future companies to know that there is a better path than doing something bad pre-meditated (Accidents will always happen but once again, people are/can be forgiving of them but this wasn't an accident sadly)

I want future companies to know that the upshot of doing anything clearly bad intentionally isn't worth it. That's simply it. Just don't try to do anything bad intentionally (for more profit) and you are on my good side :)

And money can sometimes bend morality, so if anything, its also my criticism of them wants me that if I ever create something, to think about what I have said publicly as well to just make the equation tend slightly towards the approach that I expect from other companies into anything that (if) I build myself.

Even though its hard to like them and they might not have gained at the moment, They will have moments in the future as well. So I wish that they take a lesson and from a more truly human respective (we are all flesh after all) into thinking about the ethics of the situation. It's uncomfortable but that's what needed imo sometimes.

Aside from that, I still wish them luck in their life and their project as they are still human as well and I genuinely wish them that within the moments of future, they prove themselves when they get the chance and I would hope that they one day can regain my trust back too if thats the case haha!

It's also worth mentioning that they are Indians and I am Indian too. I am bullish about Indian startup and its culture and more to a degree my nation at the moment and that's actually why I am harsher on them too. I expect better from the people of my nation and to a degree, my community and I come to this position with love/passion, and in that regards I will continue expecting better and wishing for them better at the same time.

So I hope I could get my point across to you and once again, I appreciate both your work and dang's work. Have a nice day Sir!