4 ms·

I've been flagging all the "here's a random wikipedia page" low-effort posts, I recommend people do the same.

by kbd 6y ago

dang 6y ago
It's good to flag the ones that aren't a good fit, but please leave intact the ones on obscure topics. More explanation at my sibling comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22990237 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22990237).
- 3131s 6y ago
  How about just removing the flagging feature? It's annoying that a few people can derail a discussion on an article that many others have upvoted. Also, what happened to the "vouch" button?
  - dang 6y ago
    That's mistaken. A few flags can't do much against many upvotes. In fact, almost every story with many upvotes gets a few flags. What are some cases where you felt like this was happening? It's true that flagging doesn't work perfectly, but it works better than many major features of HN. For example, it works far better than the upvoting system. Upvotes alone would kill the site [1]. There's a tug of war between upvotes and flags [2]. Some users flag because they personally dislike or disagree with an article, but when an article gets many votes, those flags aren't enough to win the tug of war. For flags to win, there needs to be a coalition between that group and a (usually larger) group of users who feel that the submission breaks the site guidelines somehow, or that the topic has been repeated too much and the new article doesn't contain significant new information [3]. HN's system consists of community, software, and moderation. When one part of the system fails, another part exists to address the failure. For example, when moderators fail, the community lets us know. When the flagging system fails, in the sense that an article that is on-topic and interesting gets unfairly flagged, it's the moderators' job to correct that when we review the flagged items. Community members can speed that process up by emailing hn@ycombinator.com. [1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20%22upvotes%20alone%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... [2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20tug%20of%20war&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... [3] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20%22significant%20new%20information%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
  - detaro 6y ago
    > Also, what happened to the "vouch" button? It only appears on things that are flag-killed, not just [flagged]
anamexis 6y ago
Surely it is the same amount of effort as any other post.
3131s 6y ago
If that's how it's supposed to work, I'll start flagging every single MacOS and Windows related post I see on HN. I actually found this because about once a week I search for all the Wikipedia articles that get posted on HN. I usually open most of the ones with multiple upvotes if I haven't seen them before.

I've been flagging all the "here's a random wikipedia page" low-effort posts, I recommend people do the same.

by kbd 6y ago

I've been flagging all the "here's a random wikipedia page" low-effort posts, I recommend people do the same.

dang 6y ago

It's good to flag the ones that aren't a good fit, but please leave intact the ones on obscure topics. More explanation at my sibling comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22990237 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22990237).

3131s 6y ago
How about just removing the flagging feature? It's annoying that a few people can derail a discussion on an article that many others have upvoted. Also, what happened to the "vouch" button?
- dang 6y ago
  That's mistaken. A few flags can't do much against many upvotes. In fact, almost every story with many upvotes gets a few flags. What are some cases where you felt like this was happening? It's true that flagging doesn't work perfectly, but it works better than many major features of HN. For example, it works far better than the upvoting system. Upvotes alone would kill the site [1]. There's a tug of war between upvotes and flags [2]. Some users flag because they personally dislike or disagree with an article, but when an article gets many votes, those flags aren't enough to win the tug of war. For flags to win, there needs to be a coalition between that group and a (usually larger) group of users who feel that the submission breaks the site guidelines somehow, or that the topic has been repeated too much and the new article doesn't contain significant new information [3]. HN's system consists of community, software, and moderation. When one part of the system fails, another part exists to address the failure. For example, when moderators fail, the community lets us know. When the flagging system fails, in the sense that an article that is on-topic and interesting gets unfairly flagged, it's the moderators' job to correct that when we review the flagged items. Community members can speed that process up by emailing hn@ycombinator.com. [1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20%22upvotes%20alone%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... [2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20tug%20of%20war&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... [3] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20%22significant%20new%20information%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
- detaro 6y ago
  > Also, what happened to the "vouch" button? It only appears on things that are flag-killed, not just [flagged]

anamexis 6y ago

Surely it is the same amount of effort as any other post.

3131s 6y ago

If that's how it's supposed to work, I'll start flagging every single MacOS and Windows related post I see on HN. I actually found this because about once a week I search for all the Wikipedia articles that get posted on HN. I usually open most of the ones with multiple upvotes if I haven't seen them before.