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HN appears to do some shady stuff too... sometimes it is users flagging post (like a mega-downvote) and sometimes it is the admins controlling the speech. I'm
by Black101 6y ago
HN appears to do some shady stuff too... sometimes it is users flagging post (like a mega-downvote) and sometimes it is the admins controlling the speech.
I'm not sure why HN needs flagging and down-votes... because flagging is being abused all the time (and I think that some users get super-heavy-flagging-powers, a bit like low level admins).
- ramphastidae 6y agoFlagging is the least bad system I’ve seen so far. HN can be configured to show flagged or dead posts as well so it doesn’t really compare.
- Black101 6y agoDoes the admin(s) need to do anything to hide a post when a post has been flagged by users or it is automatically hidden?
- ohyeshedid 6y agoIt's automatically hidden.
- greenyoda 6y agoIt's automatic. If enough users flag a post, it gets "killed" and will only show up (with the tag "[flagged][dead]") if you have the "showdead" option enabled in your profile.
- mhh__ 6y agoI don't think it's an awful system but I don't think it's exactly right for HN - in normal operations it works fairly well but when combined with some less desirable HN stereotypes it can just involve shutting down discussion one disagrees with (e.g. merely mentioning Donald Trump by name was an insta flag during the election, but you could always get away with worse if you talked about democrats because the average user is further right than most forums)
- dec0dedab0de 6y agoI think most of us automatically downvote or flag anything political regardless of personal politics. Especially US presidential politics, because that's what the uninteresting parts of the internet are for.
- Black101 6y agoIt is completely false that a bias doesn't come into play with political content. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but some users appear to have been given more power and can shut down those articles more quickly.
- Steko 6y agoThe least bad system is far more transparent.
- underseacables 6y agoI’ve always wanted to see on HN a public audit trail of all moderator modified, or removed posts and comments. That would give greater transparency and might prevent moderators enforcing their own beliefs and norms. Then again the counter argument, or point, is that HN won’t do that because it could open mods to greater pressure, unless it’s actually corporate policy to control the narrative. Any other reasons why HN wouldn’t publish a public audit trail?
- ohyeshedid 6y agoWithout all the information you're still left with a lot of mystery. I might ban an account, for seemingly nothing, because I can see they've created 15 accounts in the last two days to troll and stir shit up. Partial information seems to create as many, if not more, conspiracies than no information. Moderating large social systems is tricky.
- underseacables 6y agoI think any action done can be noted to that effect, but a step towards transparency should be a goal, because over time and interaction that “mystery” cold be solved. Wikipedia records all changes for review, with such an erudite crowd behind HN, it would seem trivial to establish such a system.