3 ms·

Ask HN: When does a story get flagged?

I noticed that the moderators are flagging a lot of stories lately, are there any guidelines that should tell if a story should be flagged? Is there a way to appeal the process?

Tomte 8y ago
Most flagged stories were flagged by users, not moderators.
gus_massa 8y ago
The Guidelines and FAQ are linked at the bottom, some parts may be relevant. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html Do you have two or three examples? It's easier to explain what happened in those cases. In case you see something that is wrongly dead/flagged you can "vouch" it. If that fails you can send an email to the mods hn@ycombinator.com . They usually reply soon, but it's a manual process so use it wisely.
- MichaelMoser123 8y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18706174 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18706174 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18696389 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18696389 - this one got flagged yesterday, now it is no longer flagged. Wonder what happened.
  - gus_massa 8y ago
    As Tomte said, remember that flags are done by users. Also, when enough users flags the story it gets a penalty and drops in the order, then it gets a [flagged] tag and then it is killed. The numbers of users for each step is not public, it is part of the secret sauce, and may change from time to time without warning. And also the mods can remove the penalty/flag/dead. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18706174 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18706174 "I hate Python. I hate it with a passion" (hackerfactor.com) I'm neither know why it was flagged. Perhaps the title is too linkbaity. Perhaps python fanboys get angry. Some claims are not accurate. I think it's a little too controversial, but I don't agree with the flag. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18696389 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18696389 "The “Yellow Vests” Show How Much the Ground Moves Under Our Feet" (criticallegalthinking.com) It's too political and about an event outside USA. Both reason will case the article to accumulate flags from two sets of users. In my opinion it's a big event but it's not something new. People don't like to pay more taxes, and government will use any excuse to add more taxes, the word has always be this way. Also, I'm from Argentina, so a big riot from time to time is not surprising :(. I classified this article in the "ignore" bin, no upvote, no flag, no vouch, just ignore it. (My only action is perhaps to go to the comments threads and upvote a few gray comments (that are not offensive or extremely wrong). I think that there are too many downvotes and it's better to minimize the amount of gray comment to have a nice civil conversation.)

I noticed that the moderators are flagging a lot of stories lately, are there any guidelines that should tell if a story should be flagged? Is there a way to appeal the process?

Tomte 8y ago

Most flagged stories were flagged by users, not moderators.

gus_massa 8y ago

The Guidelines and FAQ are linked at the bottom, some parts may be relevant. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html Do you have two or three examples? It's easier to explain what happened in those cases. In case you see something that is wrongly dead/flagged you can "vouch" it. If that fails you can send an email to the mods hn@ycombinator.com . They usually reply soon, but it's a manual process so use it wisely.

MichaelMoser123 8y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18706174 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18706174 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18696389 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18696389 - this one got flagged yesterday, now it is no longer flagged. Wonder what happened.
- gus_massa 8y ago
  As Tomte said, remember that flags are done by users. Also, when enough users flags the story it gets a penalty and drops in the order, then it gets a [flagged] tag and then it is killed. The numbers of users for each step is not public, it is part of the secret sauce, and may change from time to time without warning. And also the mods can remove the penalty/flag/dead. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18706174 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18706174 "I hate Python. I hate it with a passion" (hackerfactor.com) I'm neither know why it was flagged. Perhaps the title is too linkbaity. Perhaps python fanboys get angry. Some claims are not accurate. I think it's a little too controversial, but I don't agree with the flag. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18696389 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18696389 "The “Yellow Vests” Show How Much the Ground Moves Under Our Feet" (criticallegalthinking.com) It's too political and about an event outside USA. Both reason will case the article to accumulate flags from two sets of users. In my opinion it's a big event but it's not something new. People don't like to pay more taxes, and government will use any excuse to add more taxes, the word has always be this way. Also, I'm from Argentina, so a big riot from time to time is not surprising :(. I classified this article in the "ignore" bin, no upvote, no flag, no vouch, just ignore it. (My only action is perhaps to go to the comments threads and upvote a few gray comments (that are not offensive or extremely wrong). I think that there are too many downvotes and it's better to minimize the amount of gray comment to have a nice civil conversation.)