3 ms·

When tptacek flags a front page article (and tells us he did), I can't think of a single time I have disagreed with him. Yet, the story usually remains, for hou

When tptacek flags a front page article (and tells us he did), I can't think of a single time I have disagreed with him. Yet, the story usually remains, for hours or indefinitely. So, find more people like tptacek, and give their flags more weight. In other words: Moderators who enforce the spirit of HN and have the ability to just kill stuff. I'm really surprised this isn't happening already. If I go post some derogatory remark on a heavily moderated blog or forum, it's get's junked almost immediately.

pg 16y ago
Actually that's something I've already changed. A few hours ago I made flags have a lot more weight. The old weights were ok for the more engaged users we had a year ago, but now the ratio of votes to flags on a fluff story tends to be a lot higher.
- RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
  So that's why my submission plummeted so quickly. One person made a reasoned argument for it not belonging, lots of people piled on and flagged it, hey presto, gone. Giving flags more weight is not necessarily the answer. Punishing people for making bad comments is, I think, more important. Equally important is punishing people for upvoting bad comments. But now it's late here, and starting tomorrow I'm really not going to be here for a while. Good luck PG, I hope you can find a way to reduce the mean-spiritedness fluff, and make HN more pleasant again.
  - JesseAldridge 16y ago
    > I hope you can find a way to reduce the mean-spiritedness fluff, and make HN more pleasant again. I think this last sentence is very telling. Low quality is only part of the problem. What really makes people want to disengage is having their feelings hurt.
  - crasshopper 16y ago
    You could make flags scale concavely.
    - crasshopper 16y ago
      Come to think of it, maybe upvotes should scale concavely as well.
- dwwoelfel 16y ago
  Have you done the same for comment flags? I tracked my flags for a week and none of them had any effect. Here is a sample of the things I flagged: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2351266 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2351266 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2351266 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2351266 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2348304 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2348304
tptacek 16y ago
I should also be allowed to pick at least 1 of the startups in each YC batch.
oswiego 16y ago
Strong moderation is the key to a successful online community. The number of high quality users on HN, it should not be difficult to find a few that would be willing to do a good job of strong moderation. a group benevolent dictators is needed

pg 16y ago

Actually that's something I've already changed. A few hours ago I made flags have a lot more weight. The old weights were ok for the more engaged users we had a year ago, but now the ratio of votes to flags on a fluff story tends to be a lot higher.

RiderOfGiraffes 16y ago
So that's why my submission plummeted so quickly. One person made a reasoned argument for it not belonging, lots of people piled on and flagged it, hey presto, gone. Giving flags more weight is not necessarily the answer. Punishing people for making bad comments is, I think, more important. Equally important is punishing people for upvoting bad comments. But now it's late here, and starting tomorrow I'm really not going to be here for a while. Good luck PG, I hope you can find a way to reduce the mean-spiritedness fluff, and make HN more pleasant again.
- JesseAldridge 16y ago
  > I hope you can find a way to reduce the mean-spiritedness fluff, and make HN more pleasant again. I think this last sentence is very telling. Low quality is only part of the problem. What really makes people want to disengage is having their feelings hurt.
- crasshopper 16y ago
  You could make flags scale concavely.
  - crasshopper 16y ago
    Come to think of it, maybe upvotes should scale concavely as well.
dwwoelfel 16y ago
Have you done the same for comment flags? I tracked my flags for a week and none of them had any effect. Here is a sample of the things I flagged: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2351266 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2351266 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2351266 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2351266 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2348304 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2348304

tptacek 16y ago

I should also be allowed to pick at least 1 of the startups in each YC batch.

oswiego 16y ago

Strong moderation is the key to a successful online community. The number of high quality users on HN, it should not be difficult to find a few that would be willing to do a good job of strong moderation. a group benevolent dictators is needed