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Comment by infecto

2 years ago

Disappointed how quickly this post and the related one got flagged and in the other case was dead. I find it fascinating to read and don’t think either are necessarily deserving that? But if it does violate a rule or something greater, I would love to be educated.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38571758

@dang can step in and override the flaggers (which he should IMO).

  • Dang is aware since he has already commented in this thread. He is complicit in allowing this to be suppressed.

    • He deflagged the other post and let discussion proceed. I've had numerous comments flagged and have been super annoyed by dang's comments in the past, but he's generally acting in good faith and trying to keep the conversation civil and productive. I also think he works super hard to maintain the site, no need to be a dick to him even if you disagree with some of his views.

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  • And not sure if Dang will read this but I am curious the right balance here. The topic is ongoing and sensitive but something about posts getting instantly flagged sits wrong with me. At least when I don’t see how the contents were immoral or wrong. At the very least I would hope the HN community could help educate me on why it’s right or wrong.

    Only brining it up because I would like to discuss the topic and not create a flame war in the process.

There's a comments-to-votes ratio that triggers deranking, IIRC. Flamewar prevention.

  • That's not it; there are many upvotes and not many comments on both of those submissions. Honestly, I'm disappointed at the admins.

    • It’s most likely not the admins. I assume it’s individuals who disagree and are immediately flagging it.

    • You can flag articles once you've accumulated enough karma. I don't remember what the level is.

  • Deranking is different than dead though right? The other post was live for maybe a minute. I get the flame war prevention but this feels more like individuals killing ideas they don’t agree with. I don’t have skin in the game. Just curious.

    • It happens all the time here. I use a feed reader for HN so I see just about everything before it’s flagged or killed as it trickles in. There are posts that get quickly flagged and killed that definitely follow guidelines, but perhaps the article’s author might not have an acceptable HN community opinion on some other topic, and boom within minutes they are flagged enough to stop commentary and bury the article.

    • yes, one moves the post to 2nd page or worse, the other removes completely unless [dead] filter id disabled, plus even lower in ranks.