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I experienced the same thing about a week ago. Though I had more votes on my post than other post posted earlier, it still was not displayed on the main page. I

I experienced the same thing about a week ago. Though I had more votes on my post than other post posted earlier, it still was not displayed on the main page. I could not figure why. I sent an email for explanation to HN, but did not get an answer. Are there hidden arbitrary rules? Is everything disclosed? Can HN silently kill a post? If so, I think this would be unethical... Can someone from HN clarify? Thanks !!!

scott_s 16y ago
Users can flag a post. If enough users flag a post, the post can be auto-killed. Something about what you posted made several people think "This is spam."
- JVerstry 16y ago
  Thanks for your answer. From the guidelines, I see: "If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there is a karma threshold.)". Fine, I have no issue with a Karma implementation. But, I don't think my article was about spamming. I was just announcing the new release of JXTA/JXSE 2.6, an open source P2P project initiated by Sun Microsystems in 2001. This is not different than PostGre announcing a new release (for example). I don't see why it would attract 'negative' Karma. My issue is that I don't see the flag link. Moreover, there is nothing telling me if I have attracted 'negative karma' at all. If people 'vote' that way, I believe they should assume it and this information should be displayed (if not to inform the poster of spamming). After all, HN is about providing opinion about posts. I don't see why negatives should not be revealed and accounted for publicly. Conversely, I can imagine people instrumentalize this 'flag' link to kill a post not in their interest. Far fetched, but possible. There is a gap to 'get away with murder'. I believe more transparency about negative karma would not hurt HK overall, and would improve overall experience of newcomers.
  - Robin_Message 16y ago
    Flagging is not negative karma, it is marking something as spam. You don't see a flag link because you don't have enough karma. As to your post, a new version of PostGres is interesting to many people. Release of open source P2P project - not so much. However, your post is actually a blog post that has some interesting info in, so I'd suggest with a better title your post would have appeared much less spammy and encouraged more clicks (e.g. "As of today, JXTA 2.6 is a mature library for P2P in Java". But not that. Just like that. Not that.) As to transparency, no-one sees how many flags a post has (except pg I guess and some automated algorithm.) People must simply make an honest assessment themselves if they think a post is off-topic/spam. By not showing the number of flags pile-on effects are avoided. Multiple flags are required to kill a post, so it would have to be a large, shady conspiracy to bury your P2P software - perhaps the flags came from riaa1 through riaa10!
    - JVerstry 16y ago
      Ok, I get your suggestion about title. You say my post has interesting info. Problem is, I still don't know whether people considered it a spam or whether there has been a glitch last week (I mean, why hasn't it been displayed on the main page?). I have no problem if some people found it a spam, but I think I have a right to know then. Isn't it a legitimate request? There must be a possibility to display that info to the poster only? P.S.: I am adding my link here again so people can judge whether it is spam: http://adamman71.blogspot.com/2010/07/jxtajxse-26-is-out_4337.html http://adamman71.blogspot.com/2010/07/jxtajxse-26-is-out_433... I'd love to have people's opinion. Thanks !!!
dpritchett 16y ago
I sent an email to HN asking for similar clarification on this post http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1532599 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1532599 but have not received an answer.

scott_s 16y ago

Users can flag a post. If enough users flag a post, the post can be auto-killed. Something about what you posted made several people think "This is spam."

JVerstry 16y ago
Thanks for your answer. From the guidelines, I see: "If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there is a karma threshold.)". Fine, I have no issue with a Karma implementation. But, I don't think my article was about spamming. I was just announcing the new release of JXTA/JXSE 2.6, an open source P2P project initiated by Sun Microsystems in 2001. This is not different than PostGre announcing a new release (for example). I don't see why it would attract 'negative' Karma. My issue is that I don't see the flag link. Moreover, there is nothing telling me if I have attracted 'negative karma' at all. If people 'vote' that way, I believe they should assume it and this information should be displayed (if not to inform the poster of spamming). After all, HN is about providing opinion about posts. I don't see why negatives should not be revealed and accounted for publicly. Conversely, I can imagine people instrumentalize this 'flag' link to kill a post not in their interest. Far fetched, but possible. There is a gap to 'get away with murder'. I believe more transparency about negative karma would not hurt HK overall, and would improve overall experience of newcomers.
- Robin_Message 16y ago
  Flagging is not negative karma, it is marking something as spam. You don't see a flag link because you don't have enough karma. As to your post, a new version of PostGres is interesting to many people. Release of open source P2P project - not so much. However, your post is actually a blog post that has some interesting info in, so I'd suggest with a better title your post would have appeared much less spammy and encouraged more clicks (e.g. "As of today, JXTA 2.6 is a mature library for P2P in Java". But not that. Just like that. Not that.) As to transparency, no-one sees how many flags a post has (except pg I guess and some automated algorithm.) People must simply make an honest assessment themselves if they think a post is off-topic/spam. By not showing the number of flags pile-on effects are avoided. Multiple flags are required to kill a post, so it would have to be a large, shady conspiracy to bury your P2P software - perhaps the flags came from riaa1 through riaa10!
  - JVerstry 16y ago
    Ok, I get your suggestion about title. You say my post has interesting info. Problem is, I still don't know whether people considered it a spam or whether there has been a glitch last week (I mean, why hasn't it been displayed on the main page?). I have no problem if some people found it a spam, but I think I have a right to know then. Isn't it a legitimate request? There must be a possibility to display that info to the poster only? P.S.: I am adding my link here again so people can judge whether it is spam: http://adamman71.blogspot.com/2010/07/jxtajxse-26-is-out_4337.html http://adamman71.blogspot.com/2010/07/jxtajxse-26-is-out_433... I'd love to have people's opinion. Thanks !!!

dpritchett 16y ago

I sent an email to HN asking for similar clarification on this post http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1532599 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1532599 but have not received an answer.