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> The bigger thread has already been downvoted off the front page Isn't that the result of a Hacker News algorithm that hides stories that receive a lot of com
by leereeves 9y ago
> The bigger thread has already been downvoted off the front page
Isn't that the result of a Hacker News algorithm that hides stories that receive a lot of comments in a short time?
- throwanem 9y agoI gather that recency of submission and high comment rate contribute to a "controversiality" metric which can weight a story off the front page. But given the HN moderators' generally thoughtful style, I would not be surprised to see either that story retrieved and this one's comments folded into its thread, or that one's comments folded into this.
- genericpseudo 9y agoThe problem isn't the mods' local actions (though the mods are not nearly as assertive as I would like in this area); it's the Hacker News community's toleration of bigots and therefore the macro action of failing to remove them. Inaction is a form of action.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- Thriptic 9y agoI didn't down vote these stories, but to be blunt they aren't value adding content. I come to hacker news for interesting discussions and to learn. Reading yet another story about sexism or inequality in tech doesn't add any value to my life. The stories are predictable; the comments are predictable; and there are very few opportunities for meaningful discussion or learning. I therefore typically ignore them and I can understand why others down vote them. Bitching about things online isn't action. Changing behavior offline is action, and I doubt these stories generate any meaningful behavioral changes among the groups that need them, so what's the point?
- ebola1717 9y agoIs that really how it works? Stories about Uber typically get high comment rates, and I usually see them near the top.
- haldean 9y agoI think I remember it being something about the ratio of comments to votes; lots of comments per vote mean that it's controversial, and controversial posts age off faster.
- eridius 9y agoI'm pretty sure this is it. I heard once that if a story has more comments then votes it starts falling, though I don't know if that's accurate.
- Steko 9y agoSadly there's basically zero transparency in flagging vs comments/downvoting penalty. However when a new thread with few comments is artificially low it's almost certainly due to flag abuse. Trends in the topics that tend to get flag abused become obvious over time.
- ithinkinstereo 9y agoWell the recent discussion about TK resigning has over 1,000 comments and was on the front page for at least two days.
- savanaly 9y agoIt also had a zillion upvotes as well, though.
- jakobegger 9y agoMy experience on HN is that stories about sexism often disappear quickly. It's often that I click on a story on the front page to read the comments, only to see it flagged a few moments later. My explanation is that there is a significant number of HN readers that flag stories about sexism in tech because they don't believe them, but of course I don't have any evidence for that.
- pheldagryph 9y ago> but of course I don't have any evidence for that. I concur with your hypothesis; there're often comments on these links that would serve as evidence. I'm sure some people are just being contrarian for fun and karma, and some would just prefer to see more links specific to technologies and not 'Silicon Valley "culture"'... but some of the comments REALLY make me scratch my head.
- FT_intern 9y agoAnything that isn't scientific or technical in nature gets downvoted, including posts from the other end of the spectrum like false rape accusations and gamergate. The exception is news from the large tech companies and unicorns. I appreciate this community driven filter after being bombarded by inflammatory headlines, ideologies and news all day. It filters out "political" and "controversial" topics very well.
- jasonkostempski 9y agoIt's seems more likely that, like me, they flag them because they clearly fall into the Off-Topic category of the HN guidelines.
- ceejayoz 9y agoWere they off-topic in Uber's case? I'm not sure how something that took down Travis Kalanick isn't relevant on HN.
- weberc2 9y agoI imagine people are more likely to flag a boring off-topic story than an interesting off-topic story. "interesting" probably being some function of relevance to the reader.