3 ms·

Is there a way to design the flag mechanism so that quality articles do not die even though they are polarizing?

swebs 7y ago
In theory, the mods can whitelist those articles manually after seeing them repeatedly flagged and vouched for. However, we know that the mods have already seen this article since the link was changed from the archive to the paywall URL. In addition, I believe they've said in the past that they want to discourage particularly controversial stories. And biology studies like this are unfortunately controversial to the general public these days.
- dekhn 7y ago
  I agree with your assessment; I believe the site admins are intentionally not unflagging this article to avoid controversy. It would be nice if they could come out and say that directly.
  - dang 7y ago
    Not true. I only just saw this and have turned off the flags. The main problem from my perspective is that the thread has filled up with completely off topic comments about flagging and a lot of inaccurate meta stuff.
- Yetanfou 7y ago
  > biology studies like this are unfortunately controversial to the general public these days. ...but this site is not catering to the general public but to self-proclaimed hackers, a species which used to pride itself on intellectual curiosity. I should know, being one of them and being as curious as I manage to find the time for. Knee-jerk flagging is definitely not something which goes together with this definition. This flagging response is akin to a politicised version of the 'Window$IsB0ll0cks/Leenucks-suckz' type of discourse found among juvenile 'script kiddies'.
  - traderjane 7y ago
    Just because there's the word hacker here doesn't mean this is a hacker space for hackers now, and nor that it will ever trend in that direction... Some people just want an emotionally calm place to discuss ongoing industry trends they have to keep up with, a superior Reddit with more serious chat. Which group will come to define the character of this place?
    - Yetanfou 7y ago
      > Some people just want an emotionally calm place In an emotionally calm place nothing of substance can be discussed as emotions tend to rise and fall with the importance of the subject matter. Whether it is vi vs Emacs (which is totally subjective), Linux vs Windows (which is a bit of everything), Free Software vs Open Source (which leans towards politics), Bare metal vs virtualisation (which is purely technical) or a discussion on the differences between men and women (which is biology), some hackles will be raised somewhere. And yes, this being _Hacker news_ I do feel (which is an emotion) this place _should_ allow open and honest discussion of subjects like these. The mere fact that someone disagrees with you does not make that opinion any less valid or valuable. Where there is a diversity of opinions there _will_ be disagreement, and that is actually a good thing as there is not much less conducing to intellectual discourse than an echo chamber where everybody either agrees or keeps quiet.
- dang 7y ago
  We haven't said that in the past or in the present. Plenty of controversial stories appear on HN, as anyone who reads the site regularly would know. The issue is whether there is enough that is intellectually interesting and new in an article to support a substantive, unpredictable discussion. That's a simple consequence of intellectual curiosity being the core value of HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

In theory, the mods can whitelist those articles manually after seeing them repeatedly flagged and vouched for. However, we know that the mods have already seen this article since the link was changed from the archive to the paywall URL. In addition, I believe they've said in the past that they want to discourage particularly controversial stories. And biology studies like this are unfortunately controversial to the general public these days.

dekhn 7y ago
I agree with your assessment; I believe the site admins are intentionally not unflagging this article to avoid controversy. It would be nice if they could come out and say that directly.
- dang 7y ago
  Not true. I only just saw this and have turned off the flags. The main problem from my perspective is that the thread has filled up with completely off topic comments about flagging and a lot of inaccurate meta stuff.
Yetanfou 7y ago
> biology studies like this are unfortunately controversial to the general public these days. ...but this site is not catering to the general public but to self-proclaimed hackers, a species which used to pride itself on intellectual curiosity. I should know, being one of them and being as curious as I manage to find the time for. Knee-jerk flagging is definitely not something which goes together with this definition. This flagging response is akin to a politicised version of the 'Window$IsB0ll0cks/Leenucks-suckz' type of discourse found among juvenile 'script kiddies'.
- traderjane 7y ago
  Just because there's the word hacker here doesn't mean this is a hacker space for hackers now, and nor that it will ever trend in that direction... Some people just want an emotionally calm place to discuss ongoing industry trends they have to keep up with, a superior Reddit with more serious chat. Which group will come to define the character of this place?
  - Yetanfou 7y ago
    > Some people just want an emotionally calm place In an emotionally calm place nothing of substance can be discussed as emotions tend to rise and fall with the importance of the subject matter. Whether it is vi vs Emacs (which is totally subjective), Linux vs Windows (which is a bit of everything), Free Software vs Open Source (which leans towards politics), Bare metal vs virtualisation (which is purely technical) or a discussion on the differences between men and women (which is biology), some hackles will be raised somewhere. And yes, this being _Hacker news_ I do feel (which is an emotion) this place _should_ allow open and honest discussion of subjects like these. The mere fact that someone disagrees with you does not make that opinion any less valid or valuable. Where there is a diversity of opinions there _will_ be disagreement, and that is actually a good thing as there is not much less conducing to intellectual discourse than an echo chamber where everybody either agrees or keeps quiet.
dang 7y ago
We haven't said that in the past or in the present. Plenty of controversial stories appear on HN, as anyone who reads the site regularly would know. The issue is whether there is enough that is intellectually interesting and new in an article to support a substantive, unpredictable discussion. That's a simple consequence of intellectual curiosity being the core value of HN. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html