What you're seeing is, I believe, a combination of other users flagging posts, and maybe also a moderator placing additional down-weights on a particular post.

What you're seeing is, I believe, a combination of other users flagging posts, and maybe also a moderator placing additional down-weights on a particular post. The former (user flagging) is described in the Guidelines (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html), near the bottom. Since your account is so new (that's why your username is showing up in green text), you probably don't see the "flag" option. The flag option appears after your karma passes some threshold, but that threshold isn't disclosed. As for the latter (a moderator adding a down-weight on a post), when searching through old comments I found a comment saying that there was an additional downweight placed on the parent post (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12715222#12715332 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12715222#12715332). I didn't know that was possible, although in hindsight I guess it was obvious. I have to admit, while I do like the sparse-ness of the site (in that it gives you the content with minimal adornment), I think it sometimes goes too far in terms of how the guidelines are presented. For example, there's no mention at all of vouching. As another example, when 'no politics for a week' was announced, it was via a "Tell HN" post (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13108404 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13108404). IIRC, that was lifted not too long after, but that lifting was noted in a comment on a post, not as a separate post. I found that interesting, but problematic: Things like "Show HN" and "Ask HN" have their own feeds, in addition to the main and "new" feeds; I think it's very important that "Tell HN" (or some other feed conveying site updates) also have some sort of feed.