4 ms·

hacker news admins should investigate the downvote patterns on articles critical of china ...there seems to be a very strong downward pressure on articles criti

hacker news admins should investigate the downvote patterns on articles critical of china ...there seems to be a very strong downward pressure on articles critical of china — so much that i suspect there may be a down vote ring..

Mindwipe 7y ago
Yup. There are a few "throwaway" accounts that are also fairly obviously astroturfing too.
tyfon 7y ago
Dang explained yesterday [1] that there is a "common news item" penalty to stories to avoid very hot topics from dominating the front page, but that they have removed this restrictions from some articles. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21211124 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21211124
- udujdbfhu 7y ago
  Down vote brigades are real. So to are government shills. Finally the mods regularly lie about their ongoing censorship policy. Look no further then the fact that such topics cannot be discussed. My post will be removed very quickly.
- dang 7y ago
  I don't have time to dig up specific links at the moment, but if you look through https://news.ycombinator.com/posts?id=dang https://news.ycombinator.com/posts?id=dang, you'll see that I've written about this extensively in the last few days. China-related stories are anything but suppressed here—it has been the most-discussed single theme of the last week, and one of the most of the last several months. See these #1 stories from the last few days: https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2019-10-07 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2019-10-07 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2019-10-08 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2019-10-08 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2019-10-10 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2019-10-10
  - asdf333 7y ago
    got it. thanks for the response. Just worried that HN could be a target for concerted manipulation just like facebook/reddit/twitter
etaioinshrdlu 7y ago
I dunno man. A couple days ago 20 percent of the front page was anti China. Also, HN explicitly will remove posts that offer nothing but flamewar bait. Both algorithmically and manually.
Wowfunhappy 7y ago
Among other things, you can't downvote articles.
- protomyth 7y ago
  You can flag articles.
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    If you flag on-topic articles your flagging privileges can be revoked.
    - PavlovsCat 7y ago
      Seeing how dang danced around user flags here, and outright doesn't see anything unusual about how stories are sunk, I doubt that is done: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21195297 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21195297 When was the last time you saw mods mention that flagging privileges of some users have been suspended? For me it was around the Snowden revelations, when there were a lot of articles about that, a lot of complaints about there being too many articles, and apparently abuse of the flagging feature.

Mindwipe 7y ago

Yup. There are a few "throwaway" accounts that are also fairly obviously astroturfing too.

tyfon 7y ago

Dang explained yesterday [1] that there is a "common news item" penalty to stories to avoid very hot topics from dominating the front page, but that they have removed this restrictions from some articles. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21211124 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21211124

udujdbfhu 7y ago
Down vote brigades are real. So to are government shills. Finally the mods regularly lie about their ongoing censorship policy. Look no further then the fact that such topics cannot be discussed. My post will be removed very quickly.
dang 7y ago
I don't have time to dig up specific links at the moment, but if you look through https://news.ycombinator.com/posts?id=dang https://news.ycombinator.com/posts?id=dang, you'll see that I've written about this extensively in the last few days. China-related stories are anything but suppressed here—it has been the most-discussed single theme of the last week, and one of the most of the last several months. See these #1 stories from the last few days: https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2019-10-07 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2019-10-07 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2019-10-08 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2019-10-08 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2019-10-10 https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2019-10-10
- asdf333 7y ago
  got it. thanks for the response. Just worried that HN could be a target for concerted manipulation just like facebook/reddit/twitter

etaioinshrdlu 7y ago

I dunno man. A couple days ago 20 percent of the front page was anti China. Also, HN explicitly will remove posts that offer nothing but flamewar bait. Both algorithmically and manually.

Wowfunhappy 7y ago

Among other things, you can't downvote articles.

protomyth 7y ago
You can flag articles.
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  If you flag on-topic articles your flagging privileges can be revoked.
  - PavlovsCat 7y ago
    Seeing how dang danced around user flags here, and outright doesn't see anything unusual about how stories are sunk, I doubt that is done: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21195297 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21195297 When was the last time you saw mods mention that flagging privileges of some users have been suspended? For me it was around the Snowden revelations, when there were a lot of articles about that, a lot of complaints about there being too many articles, and apparently abuse of the flagging feature.