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The story was buried off the front two pages first. Then the flag happened. Maybe caching was involved, so the "[flagged]" was delayed. But the story definitel

The story was buried off the front two pages first. Then the flag happened. Maybe caching was involved, so the "[flagged]" was delayed. But the story definitely disappeared before "[flagged]" showed up. Just reporting what I saw. Either way, it's no big deal. It would've been a bad idea to have it on the front page.

grzm 9y ago
As I understand it, the behaviors are related but independent. User flagging affects ranking even before the [flagged] tag appears. There's some threshold before the latter happens, which I suspect is what you observed.
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  Nah, that causes a story to move from page 1 to page 2, for example. (Or more precisely, to drop in rank by ~10 to ~20.) I made certain to check the front two pages for this story, and it wasn't on them, immediately. Then [flagged] popped up later. It was a sharp step function, not a gradual change. If flagging caused a story to disappear from the front two pages, there would never be a need for [flagged] -- a story would be as good as flagged without it. It'd be a clarifying signal, but it wouldn't have any material impact on the story's rank. Again, none of this really matters, but it's fun to talk about. :) Maybe it was buried via a torrent of flags. If three flags showed up within a few seconds of each other, that might have caused the behavior. EDIT: see http://hnrankings.info/15267221/ http://hnrankings.info/15267221/
  - pvg 9y ago
    I'm sure the moderators have nothing better to do on weekends but engage in elaborate dastardly schemes to move stories from page 2 to page 4 without [flagged] appearing and keep us down.
    - sillysaurus3 9y ago
      I didn't mean to insinuate anything. It's just fun to talk about, like trying to unravel the dynamics of the stars in ancient times. Diff the data with http://hnrankings.info/15150237/ http://hnrankings.info/15150237/ and you'll see this one completely disappeared. It wasn't moved by flags -- it was completely erased by them. It's a mystery! Pointless mysteries are fun.

grzm 9y ago

As I understand it, the behaviors are related but independent. User flagging affects ranking even before the [flagged] tag appears. There's some threshold before the latter happens, which I suspect is what you observed.

sillysaurus3 9y ago
Nah, that causes a story to move from page 1 to page 2, for example. (Or more precisely, to drop in rank by ~10 to ~20.) I made certain to check the front two pages for this story, and it wasn't on them, immediately. Then [flagged] popped up later. It was a sharp step function, not a gradual change. If flagging caused a story to disappear from the front two pages, there would never be a need for [flagged] -- a story would be as good as flagged without it. It'd be a clarifying signal, but it wouldn't have any material impact on the story's rank. Again, none of this really matters, but it's fun to talk about. :) Maybe it was buried via a torrent of flags. If three flags showed up within a few seconds of each other, that might have caused the behavior. EDIT: see http://hnrankings.info/15267221/ http://hnrankings.info/15267221/
- pvg 9y ago
  I'm sure the moderators have nothing better to do on weekends but engage in elaborate dastardly schemes to move stories from page 2 to page 4 without [flagged] appearing and keep us down.
  - sillysaurus3 9y ago
    I didn't mean to insinuate anything. It's just fun to talk about, like trying to unravel the dynamics of the stars in ancient times. Diff the data with http://hnrankings.info/15150237/ http://hnrankings.info/15150237/ and you'll see this one completely disappeared. It wasn't moved by flags -- it was completely erased by them. It's a mystery! Pointless mysteries are fun.