8 ms·
The flagging isn't a rogue algorithm. It's the majority of the sites users saying they don't want to keep seeing the same two toxic viewpoints throwing shit at
by forthefuture 9y ago
The flagging isn't a rogue algorithm.
It's the majority of the sites users saying they don't want to keep seeing the same two toxic viewpoints throwing shit at each other.
- jacquesm 9y agoIf that were the only way it was used it would be fine. But it is also used to simply shut down rational discussion on subjects the flaggers don't like.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- forthefuture 9y agoI use hckrnews myself and don't see this happening. Would you mind identifying which threads you think have been incorrectly flagged?
- jacquesm 9y agoIn the last 24 hours you'll find plenty of those about the Google affair, most likely shut down by Googlers flagging those links to shut down any discussion. Hard to tell without knowing who the flaggers are, which is one reason I don't like flagging.
- wvl 9y agoI find the chronological history of hckrnews.com adds context to why many things get flagged. For example, immediately after the bloomberg article was posted about Google firing the memo author, were several other articles with the same content (from arstechnica and nymag) which were immediately flagged. Any time an inflammatory subject gets beat to death, the same process happens. So in that respect, I often agree with the submissions that get flagged (including this one), but I do think news.ycombinator.com could do a better job of collecting and displaying these flagged submissions. For example, duplicate submissions could be made children of the submission that was allowed to stay.
- jacquesm 9y agoThose merges sometimes happen but they're a moderator intervention and so have a pretty high cost associated with t them. The biggest gripe I have with the flagging is the paternalistic aspect.