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I'll be interested to see what responses you get to that. A couple of points. I don't think TSA stories are any less or more valid than some of the other stor

I'll be interested to see what responses you get to that. A couple of points. I don't think TSA stories are any less or more valid than some of the other stories that hit the front page - and probably I flag them too. As I say, my criterion is that I don't think they are of interest specifically to hackers or entrepreneurs. They are, and should be, of wider interest. To me, that means they don't belong here. And for what it's worth, there are stories that I am interested in that I flag for exactly the same reason. Yes, I'm interested. No, I don't think it belongs on Hacker News. And you're confusing down-voting with flagging. And no, I'm not content to just let it go by. If I did, where would I draw the line? LOL catz (or whatever they're called? Hell, why not just ignore them too ... I think articles that are not appropriate should be flagged. Hence I flag them. I need a way to decide. I have one. I'm only one person here - my actions will mean pretty much zip if no one agrees with me. My $0.02.

jdp23 16y ago
thanks for the response, RiderOfGiraffes. you're right, i'm confused between downvoting and flagging. are there two different ways to vote no available for people with a high enough karma? in any case it sounds like the "HN thing to do" here is for me to advocate my position and see what the community says.
- RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
  Submissions can never be down-voted, they can only be flagged as inappropriate. Comments can be down-voted (or upvoted) with a single click. They can also be flagged, but that means clicking through, then clicking "flag." The difference is that down-voting costs the commenter karma, but the comment stays visible (albeit more grey as the votes go down.) Items or comments that get enough flags go dead and are removed entirely, unless you have "show dead" in your profile. It's not entirely clear to me the difference between flagging and voting on comments. Spam should be flagged, no question. Comments that are on topic should not be flagged, but if they are information free (such as a witty one-liner with no insight) are usually voted down. I only flag comments if they are deeply inappropriate, or spam. My position on flagging submissions is as stated above. Most things in which I personally ahve no interest I pass over, but if I think they are not in some way specific to hackers or start-ups, then I'll consider flagging because I think that makes them off-topic. Not everyone agrees with me, but that's OK.

jdp23 16y ago

thanks for the response, RiderOfGiraffes. you're right, i'm confused between downvoting and flagging. are there two different ways to vote no available for people with a high enough karma? in any case it sounds like the "HN thing to do" here is for me to advocate my position and see what the community says.

RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
Submissions can never be down-voted, they can only be flagged as inappropriate. Comments can be down-voted (or upvoted) with a single click. They can also be flagged, but that means clicking through, then clicking "flag." The difference is that down-voting costs the commenter karma, but the comment stays visible (albeit more grey as the votes go down.) Items or comments that get enough flags go dead and are removed entirely, unless you have "show dead" in your profile. It's not entirely clear to me the difference between flagging and voting on comments. Spam should be flagged, no question. Comments that are on topic should not be flagged, but if they are information free (such as a witty one-liner with no insight) are usually voted down. I only flag comments if they are deeply inappropriate, or spam. My position on flagging submissions is as stated above. Most things in which I personally ahve no interest I pass over, but if I think they are not in some way specific to hackers or start-ups, then I'll consider flagging because I think that makes them off-topic. Not everyone agrees with me, but that's OK.