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Why is this being flagged? Genuinely asking.

Invictus0 5y ago
HN has lots of quiet pro-China readers
meibo 5y ago
Every anti-chinese story on here usually gets flagged into oblivion(or page 2, even with plenty of upvotes), be it by bots or Chinese tech workers.
- president 5y ago
  HN (Y Combinator) has an incentive to curb posts that could potentially make China angry. Being a forefront Silicon Valley investment company, they have to play the globalist game. Therefore, I suspect there may be policies in place, whether spoken or unspoken to suppress these types of posts. I don't doubt that there are bots or Chinese nationals that also downvote/flag these posts as well.
  - dang 5y ago
    I can assure you with high confidence—since I'm the person making these calls—that this has nothing to do with how we moderate HN. I mean, it's possible that you know more about my unconscious than I do - but I think the odds are low. I'm pretty sure we're just trying to have an internet forum that doesn't suck and don't give a shit about the "globalist game". Re "I don't doubt that there are bots or Chinese nationals that also downvote/flag these posts as well" - would you mind reviewing the site guidelines, which specifically ask you not to post like that?
    - xqcgrek2 5y ago
      Interesting. You don't actually refute any of his arguments.
      - dang 5y ago
        What arguments? I didn't see any. But perhaps the following will help: > HN (Y Combinator) has an incentive to curb posts that could potentially make China angry. We have no such incentive and people post such things all the time (if by China you mean the Chinese government). > Being a forefront Silicon Valley investment company, they have to play the globalist game. Short answer: no we don't. Longer answer: whatever "globalist game" means, I've never encountered the slightest reference to this kind of thing in the years I've worked for YC. > Therefore, I suspect there may be policies in place, whether spoken or unspoken to suppress these types of posts. There are no such policies, as anyone can easily see for themselves by looking through what actually gets posted here: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=ccp&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=china&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=chinese&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=%22chinese%20communist%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=uighur&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... > I don't doubt that there are bots or Chinese nationals that also downvote/flag these posts as well. As explained above, it's against the site guidelines to post like this when you have zero evidence. This is an important rule, for reasons I've explained many times over many years: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=true&page=0&query=by:dang%20astroturf https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20-recycling%20chin&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... --- I believe that covers everything. Better?
- dang 5y ago
  That's not even close to true. The opposite is closer to true. You may be falling prey to the notice-dislike bias (you're more likely to notice and put weight on the things you dislike), which leads to false feelings of generality. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20dislike%20notice&sort=byDate&type=story&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=%22false%20feelings%20of%20generality%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... Your comment broke the site guidelines badly. Please read the rules and follow them when posting to HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
justapassenger 5y ago
I've flagged it. Article is ok. But the title on HN is a cheap clickbait. Someone, in USA, asking for a grant in the past doesn't point to anything about origins of SARS-CoV-2.
- Pick-A-Hill2019 5y ago
  Unless the Intercept changed the page the submission also breaks the guidelines about editorializing submission titles. TFA headline reads: Leaked Grant Proposal Details High-Risk Coronavirus Research (I didn't flag it, just voicing a possible reason for the submission to be flagged)
- BellLabradors 5y ago
  What do you think of these quotes?: "“Some kind of threshold has been crossed,” said Alina Chan, a Boston-based scientist and co-author of the upcoming book “Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19.” Chan has been vocal about the need to thoroughly investigate the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 emerged from a lab while remaining open to both possible theories of its development. For Chan, the revelation from the proposal was the description of the insertion of a novel furin cleavage site into bat coronaviruses — something people previously speculated, but had no evidence, may have happened. Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University who has espoused the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 may have originated in a lab, agreed. “The relevance of this is that SARS Cov-2, the pandemic virus, is the only virus in its entire genus of SARS-related coronaviruses that contains a fully functional cleavage site at the S1, S2 junction,” said Ebright, referring to the place where two subunits of the spike protein meet. “And here is a proposal from the beginning of 2018, proposing explicitly to engineer that sequence at that position in chimeric lab-generated coronaviruses.” Martin Wikelski, a director at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany, whose work tracking bats and other animals was referenced in the grant application without his knowledge, also said it made him more open to the idea that the pandemic may have its roots in a lab. “The information in the proposal certainly changes my thoughts about a possible origin of SARS-CoV-2,” Wikelski told The Intercept. “In fact, a possible transmission chain is now logically consistent — which it was not before I read the proposal.” But others insisted that the research posed little or no threat and pointed out that the proposal called for most of the genetic engineering work to be done in North Carolina rather than China. “Given that the work wasn’t funded and wasn’t proposed to take place in Wuhan anyway it’s hard to assess any bearing on the origin of SARS-CoV-2,” Stephen Goldstein, a scientist who studies the evolution of viral genes at the University of Utah, and an author of the recent Cell article, wrote in an email to The Intercept."

HN has lots of quiet pro-China readers

Every anti-chinese story on here usually gets flagged into oblivion(or page 2, even with plenty of upvotes), be it by bots or Chinese tech workers.

president 5y ago
HN (Y Combinator) has an incentive to curb posts that could potentially make China angry. Being a forefront Silicon Valley investment company, they have to play the globalist game. Therefore, I suspect there may be policies in place, whether spoken or unspoken to suppress these types of posts. I don't doubt that there are bots or Chinese nationals that also downvote/flag these posts as well.
- dang 5y ago
  I can assure you with high confidence—since I'm the person making these calls—that this has nothing to do with how we moderate HN. I mean, it's possible that you know more about my unconscious than I do - but I think the odds are low. I'm pretty sure we're just trying to have an internet forum that doesn't suck and don't give a shit about the "globalist game". Re "I don't doubt that there are bots or Chinese nationals that also downvote/flag these posts as well" - would you mind reviewing the site guidelines, which specifically ask you not to post like that?
  - xqcgrek2 5y ago
    Interesting. You don't actually refute any of his arguments.
    - dang 5y ago
      What arguments? I didn't see any. But perhaps the following will help: > HN (Y Combinator) has an incentive to curb posts that could potentially make China angry. We have no such incentive and people post such things all the time (if by China you mean the Chinese government). > Being a forefront Silicon Valley investment company, they have to play the globalist game. Short answer: no we don't. Longer answer: whatever "globalist game" means, I've never encountered the slightest reference to this kind of thing in the years I've worked for YC. > Therefore, I suspect there may be policies in place, whether spoken or unspoken to suppress these types of posts. There are no such policies, as anyone can easily see for themselves by looking through what actually gets posted here: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=ccp&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=china&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=chinese&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=%22chinese%20communist%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=uighur&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... > I don't doubt that there are bots or Chinese nationals that also downvote/flag these posts as well. As explained above, it's against the site guidelines to post like this when you have zero evidence. This is an important rule, for reasons I've explained many times over many years: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix=true&page=0&query=by:dang%20astroturf https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20-recycling%20chin&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... --- I believe that covers everything. Better?
dang 5y ago
That's not even close to true. The opposite is closer to true. You may be falling prey to the notice-dislike bias (you're more likely to notice and put weight on the things you dislike), which leads to false feelings of generality. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20dislike%20notice&sort=byDate&type=story&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=%22false%20feelings%20of%20generality%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... Your comment broke the site guidelines badly. Please read the rules and follow them when posting to HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

justapassenger 5y ago

I've flagged it. Article is ok. But the title on HN is a cheap clickbait. Someone, in USA, asking for a grant in the past doesn't point to anything about origins of SARS-CoV-2.

Pick-A-Hill2019 5y ago
Unless the Intercept changed the page the submission also breaks the guidelines about editorializing submission titles. TFA headline reads: Leaked Grant Proposal Details High-Risk Coronavirus Research (I didn't flag it, just voicing a possible reason for the submission to be flagged)
BellLabradors 5y ago
What do you think of these quotes?: "“Some kind of threshold has been crossed,” said Alina Chan, a Boston-based scientist and co-author of the upcoming book “Viral: The Search for the Origin of Covid-19.” Chan has been vocal about the need to thoroughly investigate the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 emerged from a lab while remaining open to both possible theories of its development. For Chan, the revelation from the proposal was the description of the insertion of a novel furin cleavage site into bat coronaviruses — something people previously speculated, but had no evidence, may have happened. Richard Ebright, a molecular biologist at Rutgers University who has espoused the possibility that SARS-CoV-2 may have originated in a lab, agreed. “The relevance of this is that SARS Cov-2, the pandemic virus, is the only virus in its entire genus of SARS-related coronaviruses that contains a fully functional cleavage site at the S1, S2 junction,” said Ebright, referring to the place where two subunits of the spike protein meet. “And here is a proposal from the beginning of 2018, proposing explicitly to engineer that sequence at that position in chimeric lab-generated coronaviruses.” Martin Wikelski, a director at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany, whose work tracking bats and other animals was referenced in the grant application without his knowledge, also said it made him more open to the idea that the pandemic may have its roots in a lab. “The information in the proposal certainly changes my thoughts about a possible origin of SARS-CoV-2,” Wikelski told The Intercept. “In fact, a possible transmission chain is now logically consistent — which it was not before I read the proposal.” But others insisted that the research posed little or no threat and pointed out that the proposal called for most of the genetic engineering work to be done in North Carolina rather than China. “Given that the work wasn’t funded and wasn’t proposed to take place in Wuhan anyway it’s hard to assess any bearing on the origin of SARS-CoV-2,” Stephen Goldstein, a scientist who studies the evolution of viral genes at the University of Utah, and an author of the recent Cell article, wrote in an email to The Intercept."