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Not sure about getting cancelled. But I recently submitted a link containing an uncomfortable truth from Pew Research titled "U.S. has world’s highest rate of

Not sure about getting cancelled. But I recently submitted a link containing an uncomfortable truth from Pew Research titled "U.S. has world’s highest rate of children living in single-parent households". It got 30 upvotes in one hour, and quickly reached the front page. It seemed to have gotten shadowbanned by a moderator, as it disappeared to the 5th page despite its quickly gained popularity. It was not flagged, or at least not normally as it would show "[flagged]". I suspect someone with special powers demoted it for whatever reason. This was the post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26100329 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26100329

ratsmack 6y ago
>it disappeared to the 5th page despite its quickly gained popularity I have seen this happen many times and have wondered the same thing. It is within the within the rights of whoever runs this site, but I not sure why they believe it would be required... if that is what is happening.
troydavis 6y ago
Based on the number of comments (94) and upvotes (53), this may have triggered the flamewar detector. Here’s more: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25584860 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25584860 , https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25871251 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25871251 If you’re curious, email hn@ and they’ll tell you what happened. (Background: a very high ratio of comments to upvotes often means that more people want to opine than get value from the opinions. Obviously that’s not always the case, though.)
- aminozuur 6y ago
  That sounds like a very plausible scenario in this case. Thanks for the info.
ColinWright 6y ago
I suspect it triggered the flame war detector. Search for that and you'll find more information. It can be flagged without showing "[flagged]". That tag only gets shown when something is flagged to death. Your item wasn't flagged to death because it's still active. I suspect it's mostly that a sizeable proportion of people on the site decided that it doesn't really fit with the theme and they don't want to see things like that, so they flagged it. That, associated with the large number of comments and comparatively few upvotes caused the "flame war" penalty to apply. No conspiracies necessary, all explained by the regular dynamics.
- dang 6y ago
  Yes, it triggered the flamewar detector.
  - ratsmack 6y ago
    There's nothing wrong with energetic conversation as long as it remains civil, but I have to guess that your experience is that the incivility comes quicker in these cases though.
    - hiq 6y ago
      It might not only be incivility but also lower SNR (people replying to each other with the same rehashed arguments) which makes the whole thread less interesting for everyone, including passive readers
      - dang 6y ago
        That's also exactly right. Sometimes we call it the 'overheated discussion detector' for that reason—not every such low-SNR thread is a flamewar.
    - dang 6y ago
      Yes, although the issue isn't only incivility, but also other forms of repetition. The intention is to avoid discussions that are predictable and otherwise low-information, to the extent possible. You're quite right that energetic conversations can be really good, though, which means we have to review the list of threads that have gotten penalized by the flamewar detector and turn the penalty off for the ones that don't deserve it. We do that several times a day. It's not a perfect solution though, because sometimes a thread languishes for hours before we notice that that's happened.
      - sizt 6y ago
        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic
mmaunder 6y ago
Yeah I think the older HN was way more organic. These days it seems more curated, but perhaps that's OK since older HN was way less popular with the mainstream internet than today - making it attractive for gaming the algo and vulnerable to behaviors you see on sites like reddit. I'd guess it's also a challenge to keep the site on-topic versus veering off into becoming a political or populist site.
- dang 6y ago
  The amount of curation hasn't changed that much since I've been around, and pg used to do a lot as well. HN has always been a curated/moderated/whatever-term-you-prefer site.
  - bigiain 6y ago
    And thanks for your collective work. While criticisms of this place are common, and often deserved - it’s still one of the largest and most civil places where discussions that interest me take place. Stopping public discourse from descending into shit flinging cesspits is a tough job, and overall I think what happens here is amazing.

ratsmack 6y ago

>it disappeared to the 5th page despite its quickly gained popularity I have seen this happen many times and have wondered the same thing. It is within the within the rights of whoever runs this site, but I not sure why they believe it would be required... if that is what is happening.

troydavis 6y ago

Based on the number of comments (94) and upvotes (53), this may have triggered the flamewar detector. Here’s more: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25584860 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25584860 , https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25871251 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25871251 If you’re curious, email hn@ and they’ll tell you what happened. (Background: a very high ratio of comments to upvotes often means that more people want to opine than get value from the opinions. Obviously that’s not always the case, though.)

aminozuur 6y ago
That sounds like a very plausible scenario in this case. Thanks for the info.

ColinWright 6y ago

I suspect it triggered the flame war detector. Search for that and you'll find more information. It can be flagged without showing "[flagged]". That tag only gets shown when something is flagged to death. Your item wasn't flagged to death because it's still active. I suspect it's mostly that a sizeable proportion of people on the site decided that it doesn't really fit with the theme and they don't want to see things like that, so they flagged it. That, associated with the large number of comments and comparatively few upvotes caused the "flame war" penalty to apply. No conspiracies necessary, all explained by the regular dynamics.

dang 6y ago
Yes, it triggered the flamewar detector.
- ratsmack 6y ago
  There's nothing wrong with energetic conversation as long as it remains civil, but I have to guess that your experience is that the incivility comes quicker in these cases though.
  - hiq 6y ago
    It might not only be incivility but also lower SNR (people replying to each other with the same rehashed arguments) which makes the whole thread less interesting for everyone, including passive readers
    - dang 6y ago
      That's also exactly right. Sometimes we call it the 'overheated discussion detector' for that reason—not every such low-SNR thread is a flamewar.
  - dang 6y ago
    Yes, although the issue isn't only incivility, but also other forms of repetition. The intention is to avoid discussions that are predictable and otherwise low-information, to the extent possible. You're quite right that energetic conversations can be really good, though, which means we have to review the list of threads that have gotten penalized by the flamewar detector and turn the penalty off for the ones that don't deserve it. We do that several times a day. It's not a perfect solution though, because sometimes a thread languishes for hours before we notice that that's happened.
    - sizt 6y ago
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectic

mmaunder 6y ago

Yeah I think the older HN was way more organic. These days it seems more curated, but perhaps that's OK since older HN was way less popular with the mainstream internet than today - making it attractive for gaming the algo and vulnerable to behaviors you see on sites like reddit. I'd guess it's also a challenge to keep the site on-topic versus veering off into becoming a political or populist site.

dang 6y ago
The amount of curation hasn't changed that much since I've been around, and pg used to do a lot as well. HN has always been a curated/moderated/whatever-term-you-prefer site.
- bigiain 6y ago
  And thanks for your collective work. While criticisms of this place are common, and often deserved - it’s still one of the largest and most civil places where discussions that interest me take place. Stopping public discourse from descending into shit flinging cesspits is a tough job, and overall I think what happens here is amazing.