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Flagging is done by the HN community as a kind of self-policing. Some of us are more aware of and sensitive to the guidelines[0] (and more likely to enforce the

Flagging is done by the HN community as a kind of self-policing. Some of us are more aware of and sensitive to the guidelines[0] (and more likely to enforce them) than others. So a post can be popular, but also violate guidelines blatantly enough that folks flag it. I think your question gets more interesting if a submission violates guidelines, but the readers who choose to flag it are actually the ones also opposed to the content on its own merits, and use their flagging rights to jettison the post. I've seen the same situation where posts get several up-votes shortly after posting and land on the front page before disappearing suddenly. It made me curious whether up-votes can override flags in some ratio, or, whether there is a fixed trigger count that drives [flagged], or, if flagging simply gets the attention of moderators who make the call whether to [flagged] a post or not. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

dogma1138 10y ago
Upvotes do not counter flags, users with high enough karma can vouch for flagged posts tho. If enough users vouch a post can be unflagged.
- dang 10y ago
  I'm curious where you got that impression. Upvotes do counter flags. You might be confusing flagged posts with dead ones (those are closed to new comments and, I think, upvotes). In such cases a post is explicitly marked [dead].
  - dogma1138 10y ago
    Just by casual observation but without knowing the flag vs upvote ratio/formula it's hard to tell anything. We've had posts with 100's of upvotes being flagged to death (usually 'political' or 'polarizing' issues) so it didn't look to me like upvoting does much to keep the post alive. And since the amount of flags isn't visible to us it's not that we can see that posts get flagged once they reach 5 flags for example or once the flag count reaches 10 over the upvote count etc. and make a better observation from that data. But thanks for the correction :)
dang 10y ago
Your description seems accurate to me. Upvotes do counter flags (and vice versa). Once the flags go above a certain threshold, [flagged] appears. That's always something users do, not moderators. Moderators sometimes downweight posts as well, but using a separate mechanism. Flagging does get the attention of moderators, even before the [flagged] threshold is reached. If there are enough flags to also kill a post, you'll see [flagged] [dead]. The software only kills a thread if it isn't very active, though. Does that answer your questions?
- 11thEarlOfMar 10y ago
  Yes! But then begs another... Moderators may 'downweight' a post... I'm curious what types of submissions a moderator might downweight. 'Popular but violates guidelines', or 'Popular but too distasteful/offensive', or 'popular and really funny, but not consistent with HN ethic'. How much subjectivity is there in downweighting and to what extent might it be perceived as censoring, if any.

dogma1138 10y ago

Upvotes do not counter flags, users with high enough karma can vouch for flagged posts tho. If enough users vouch a post can be unflagged.

dang 10y ago
I'm curious where you got that impression. Upvotes do counter flags. You might be confusing flagged posts with dead ones (those are closed to new comments and, I think, upvotes). In such cases a post is explicitly marked [dead].
- dogma1138 10y ago
  Just by casual observation but without knowing the flag vs upvote ratio/formula it's hard to tell anything. We've had posts with 100's of upvotes being flagged to death (usually 'political' or 'polarizing' issues) so it didn't look to me like upvoting does much to keep the post alive. And since the amount of flags isn't visible to us it's not that we can see that posts get flagged once they reach 5 flags for example or once the flag count reaches 10 over the upvote count etc. and make a better observation from that data. But thanks for the correction :)

dang 10y ago

Your description seems accurate to me. Upvotes do counter flags (and vice versa). Once the flags go above a certain threshold, [flagged] appears. That's always something users do, not moderators. Moderators sometimes downweight posts as well, but using a separate mechanism. Flagging does get the attention of moderators, even before the [flagged] threshold is reached. If there are enough flags to also kill a post, you'll see [flagged] [dead]. The software only kills a thread if it isn't very active, though. Does that answer your questions?

11thEarlOfMar 10y ago
Yes! But then begs another... Moderators may 'downweight' a post... I'm curious what types of submissions a moderator might downweight. 'Popular but violates guidelines', or 'Popular but too distasteful/offensive', or 'popular and really funny, but not consistent with HN ethic'. How much subjectivity is there in downweighting and to what extent might it be perceived as censoring, if any.