>>Some users would like to see two heated discussions about income inequality on the front page, but I can assure you that many others would not. Yeah, but how

>>Some users would like to see two heated discussions about income inequality on the front page, but I can assure you that many others would not. Yeah, but how many? We know how many people upvote a submission. We can't see how many people flag it. And flags seem to carry far more weight than upvotes, so we have a situation where a dissident minority squashes the will of the majority and censors discussion. The other issue of course is how crowded conversations get and how difficult it is for newcomers to join. If a submission has 300+ comments, good luck having your voice heard. Whereas "response" submissions give voice to second and third wave commenters who don't have the luxury of refreshing HN every 10 minutes to catch conversations that are on the upswing.