This is a brilliant comment, Dan, both in the message and the wording. I loved the image of the "common astroturfy warbler". Previously, I hadn't considered m

This is a brilliant comment, Dan, both in the message and the wording. I loved the image of the "common astroturfy warbler". Previously, I hadn't considered much the importance of who comments on which posts, and how this changes based on the perceived slant of the original article. Going back to my hobby-horse, I wonder how much user-flagging of posts is caused by similar perceptual biases, and what effect this has on others' perceptions of the site. From the outside, it looks this article was flagged off the front page: http://hnrankings.info/15171291/ http://hnrankings.info/15171291/. Was it someone who disagreed with the anti-Google slant of the article, or someone who didn't like that many of the comments appeared pro-Google? Even if there was some non-flagging reason for the sudden drop, I'm sure that both "sides" will view the demotion as evidence that the site (admins, users, or both) is biased against them.