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Genuinely curious why this story was flagged while an active discussion is taking place in the comments, which are very similar to discussions in other related

Genuinely curious why this story was flagged while an active discussion is taking place in the comments, which are very similar to discussions in other related stories on HN not getting flagged.

glitcher 6y ago
Assuming good faith, at the minimum this appears to be an inconsistent application of flagging articles as compared to many other recent comparable items that gained traction.
0xffff2 6y ago
I agree. I get the wish to keep HN from being an (overly) political place, and I might agree with flagging this if it was a post on some random person's blog (even if that person is well known in tech). But this is not that. This a statement from a long serving and respected former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, someone who is eminently qualified to comment. Furthermore, it is a post that speaks not to any of the details, but to the larger picture of what is going on in the United States right now. If there was a single post about the current situation that I would nominate to be allowed here, this is undoubtedly it.
effingwewt 6y ago
I have no idea, but it's not just the flagging, I even bring it up and the negs pour in. Weird emails recently, too. I've no idea why it's gotten so bad lately, I guess when something is so divisive it's just bound to happen. I get the comments can be cesspools and maybe that's why the fast flags, but censoring opposing views doesn't erase them, it hides them. I dont come for articles, most are reposted from other aggregators, I come for the comments, the discussions and the views.
glitcher 6y ago
As others have noted, it may be that the discussion here was spiraling into a negative cesspool of bad comments too quickly, and maybe that's why it got flagged? I reposted a similar article as an experiment, although it's not nearly as good since it isn't the original source. It didn't get flagged but probably because it didn't gain traction quickly enough to garner comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17257112 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17257112

Genuinely curious why this story was flagged while an active discussion is taking place in the comments, which are very similar to discussions in other related stories on HN not getting flagged.

glitcher 6y ago

Assuming good faith, at the minimum this appears to be an inconsistent application of flagging articles as compared to many other recent comparable items that gained traction.

0xffff2 6y ago

I agree. I get the wish to keep HN from being an (overly) political place, and I might agree with flagging this if it was a post on some random person's blog (even if that person is well known in tech). But this is not that. This a statement from a long serving and respected former chairman of the Joint Chiefs, someone who is eminently qualified to comment. Furthermore, it is a post that speaks not to any of the details, but to the larger picture of what is going on in the United States right now. If there was a single post about the current situation that I would nominate to be allowed here, this is undoubtedly it.

effingwewt 6y ago

I have no idea, but it's not just the flagging, I even bring it up and the negs pour in. Weird emails recently, too. I've no idea why it's gotten so bad lately, I guess when something is so divisive it's just bound to happen. I get the comments can be cesspools and maybe that's why the fast flags, but censoring opposing views doesn't erase them, it hides them. I dont come for articles, most are reposted from other aggregators, I come for the comments, the discussions and the views.

glitcher 6y ago

As others have noted, it may be that the discussion here was spiraling into a negative cesspool of bad comments too quickly, and maybe that's why it got flagged? I reposted a similar article as an experiment, although it's not nearly as good since it isn't the original source. It didn't get flagged but probably because it didn't gain traction quickly enough to garner comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17257112 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17257112