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So I am tempted to flag this submission because I don't really think HN is the place but I want to make sure I am using the flag feature correctly. Can any more

by agolio 4y ago

So I am tempted to flag this submission because I don't really think HN is the place but I want to make sure I am using the flag feature correctly. Can any more experienced HN user weigh in? Is flagging for articles you don't want to see on HN or is it more reserved for spam/ inaccuracies?

haunter 4y ago
I flag everything that is pure drama, nothing substance. Like this post. Twitter stuff (for example everything Elon related which took over HN for months), everything that I saw on the reddit front page earlier which means it's already at the lowest of low quality and it has no place in mind on HN. In the end flag whatever you want and move on.
- d23 4y ago
  The Twitter posts are as relevant as posts could possibly be for a SV tech-oriented discussion forum.
  - SauciestGNU 4y ago
    I personally enjoy them and following the drama, but they do reduce to flamewar more often than not.
ThrowawayR2 4y ago
The HN guidelines say: "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic." IMO one could justifiably say that it doesn't meet the "gratifies [hacker]'s intellectual curiosity" bar to be on-topic and runs afoul of the "crime" example in the off-topic guideline but ultimately the decision as to whether the story is sufficiently off topic to merit a flag is up to readers' personal judgement.
- agolio 4y ago
  Thanks for these guidelines. I think the "intellectual curiosity" criteria hits the nail on the head of what I was looking for to describe what I like to see on HN. Agree this post is a gray area.
  - Sunspark 4y ago
    One could make the argument that it is on-topic because the drama is on twitter which is currently caught up in a whirlpool of techno-politics owing to the recent ownership change. The link itself is a good write-up analysis. It is more in-depth than a soundbite.

by agolio 4y ago

haunter 4y ago

I flag everything that is pure drama, nothing substance. Like this post. Twitter stuff (for example everything Elon related which took over HN for months), everything that I saw on the reddit front page earlier which means it's already at the lowest of low quality and it has no place in mind on HN. In the end flag whatever you want and move on.

d23 4y ago
The Twitter posts are as relevant as posts could possibly be for a SV tech-oriented discussion forum.
- SauciestGNU 4y ago
  I personally enjoy them and following the drama, but they do reduce to flamewar more often than not.

ThrowawayR2 4y ago

The HN guidelines say: "On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic." IMO one could justifiably say that it doesn't meet the "gratifies [hacker]'s intellectual curiosity" bar to be on-topic and runs afoul of the "crime" example in the off-topic guideline but ultimately the decision as to whether the story is sufficiently off topic to merit a flag is up to readers' personal judgement.

agolio 4y ago
Thanks for these guidelines. I think the "intellectual curiosity" criteria hits the nail on the head of what I was looking for to describe what I like to see on HN. Agree this post is a gray area.
- Sunspark 4y ago
  One could make the argument that it is on-topic because the drama is on twitter which is currently caught up in a whirlpool of techno-politics owing to the recent ownership change. The link itself is a good write-up analysis. It is more in-depth than a soundbite.