Comment by dang
5 days ago
It's not conspiratorial, it's how HN works:
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
But it has nothing to do with "cutting checks". PG hasn't been doing that, nor influencing HN, nor even reading HN as far as I know, for many years.
That's not the point - the point is there is a clear conflict of interest between users and moderation when it comes to unflagging a post from the forum's creator.
Even if you are somehow totally impartial (and it's hard to imagine from my point of view, due to information asymmetry and very mild cynicism) it would still be wise to "recuse yourself" - similar to the guidelines about how moderation happens less when it comes to topics directly discussing ycombinator.
This seems obvious to me. I'm not even particularly fond of the user flagging system. It's so clearly ripe for misuse by people trying to effectively censor topics they personally don't like. But if that system is in place, and another system is used to occasionally remove it- the latter system should be used with more care than has been done here. Not because you're definitely corrupt- but because the optics on it are not in your favor at all and it would be challenging if not impossible to alleviate those concerns.
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