Ask HN: Why is the Netlify post with 1k in 7 hours on page 5?

1 year ago

I've wondered about this before and then I saw someone else raise this point so I thought I ask here: Why is the very highly up voted Netlify post so far down in the ranking? Moderator intervention? If so why?

The other person who was wondering: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39524104

10 comments

croemer

Reply
dang  1 year ago

This question is so frequently asked that we put it in the FAQ: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39524850.

  • croemer  1 year ago

    Thanks for explaining! Can you maybe tell me why this question is hidden as well? Did it get flagged or trigger the same algorithm?

    • dang  1 year ago

      Users flagged it, and correctly. See https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html: "Please don't post on HN to ask or tell us something. Send it to hn@ycombinator.com." That's probably what pvg was referring to.

      Generally speaking it's too easy for meta discussion (i.e. discussion about the site, or discussion about discussion about the site) to take over the site.

    • pvg  1 year ago

      There’s another bit in the faq about mailing such questions to the mods rather than posting them to hn so they usually get moderated and/or downweighted by user flags.

yorwba  1 year ago

Probably a combination of people flagging and lots of comments. If you want to know for sure, use the Contact link in the footer to email the mods.

  • croemer  1 year ago

    Thanks! Why would people be flagging, other than those working at Netlify? And lots of comments penalizes? I didn't know!

  • PaulHoule  1 year ago

    The average post on HN has two votes per comment. If a post is getting a lot more than that (say more than one) it is very possible that a knock-down-drag-out discussion is going on. So the system suppresses discussions that get a lot of comments.

    I have a model that predicts the comment/vote ratio for a given headline, high scoring headlines often look like clickbait such as "Salt Bae restaurant charging nearly 700 pounds for a steak cuts heating to save cash" or "Are male and female brains that different? Surely there are better questions to ask"