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Can you please send me a link to your story? I started looking through your comment history and the first thing I noticed was this comment doesn't show up (pro

Can you please send me a link to your story? I started looking through your comment history and the first thing I noticed was this comment doesn't show up (probably because it's a descendant of a flagged comment), and rather than go looking for something that may have already been hidden on HN I figured I'd just ask.

sillysaurusx 4y ago
One way to view those is to go into your profile and flip “showdead” to yes. Careful of the zombies though.
- garbagetime 4y ago
  I don't think that works. It will show the dead, but not their children.
  - sillysaurusx 4y ago
    Hmm. Could you point out an example? If something related to the showdead mechanics have changed, that would be quite interesting. For me, it’s always reliably shown everything.
    - garbagetime 4y ago
      Sure. Here's a recent comment from the user dang: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34271566 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34271566 And here's his page, where the comment can't be seen: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dang https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dang --- And here's another comment, also from dang, where he talked about this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34264605 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34264605 > this how HN's software works these days. We didn't do anything specific to the thread; it's just that users flagged the root comment.
      - sillysaurusx 4y ago
        That’s interesting. I suspect it’s special cased for admin accounts specifically. The reason might be that users often pick fights with mods. Dan’s comment page might be overwhelmed by such threads if left unchecked. pg once noted that pg’s own account was highly watched relative to other accounts, so maybe users were following Dan around and adding fuel to the very fires he was trying to put out. The reason I say that is because I can’t find any examples of this phenomenon except his account. Do you know of any? E.g. this thread does show up on the flagged user’s profile page, contrary to what others were saying. It’s right below this one for me: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=breck&next=34266186#34271727 https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=breck&next=34266186#... It also seems to show up on everyone else’s page: mine, tptacek’s, etc. Cheers for pointing that out. Stuff like this is fascinating, and we rarely get the chance to nerd out about it. EDIT: interestingly, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34265016 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34265016 does show up.
        garbagetime 4y ago
        Simple explanation, I'm afraid: I was dumb. There are no exceptions (...at least, none that I'm currently aware of). Dang's "missing comment" actually is on his page, just not where I was looking. The comment was new, but it was a descendant of one of dang's older comments, so it appears further back in his profile than where I looked.
        sillysaurusx 4y ago
        It’s a surprisingly easy mistake to make. I thought it might be that, so I triple checked, and still missed it. So you’re not alone. One time many years ago, I almost emailed a bug report claiming the very same thing. Luckily I noticed right beforehand. It speaks to Dan’s dedication that he did so much for the site in a single day that both of us missed his comment buried in the avalanche. :) In fairness, the discussion was a little confusing, since it was combining a few different topics (showdead, OPs thread, flagging, and admin’ing) so a mixup probably isn’t too surprising. HN is completely fascinating, and I appreciated the analytical eye you were bringing to it. If you keep doing that, you’ll notice a ton of surprising little details over time. Minimaxir tried to document them in “undocumented features of hacker news” and the list is still far from complete. Plus it’s cool that the site is ever-evolving. One of my favorite new features is that if you go to an old submission, e.g, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1 (or thereabouts), all the users’ names will show up in green if they were a new account at the time. I.e. it preserves the historical fact of someone being a new user in a given comment thread. It’s such a small detail, yet there are quite literally thousands of such small details that all add up to something wonderful. Regardless, have a good weekend, and cheers for the chat.
dang 4y ago
> this comment doesn't show up (probably because it's a descendant of a flagged comment) Correct - this how HN's software works these days. We didn't do anything specific to the thread; it's just that users flagged the root comment. Btw I wasn't part of any internal YC discussions about banning anybody but I know and like breck from our time in W09 together, I have a lot of experience with this on the HN side, and you're unlikely to be able to extract the real story from material on the internet. Speaking generally, there's an asymmetry with stories like this: one side can take to the open internet and say anything, while the other side can't or won't—and sometimes one of the reasons, ironically, is to protect that very person.
- nmfisher 4y ago
  Irrespective of how many sides there are to the original story, why is the parent comment flagged? He did YC, but he's not in the directory - those two statements are true, no?
  - tptacek 4y ago
    He can't tell you. Users flag things, not admins.
    - nmfisher 4y ago
      Admins can’t unflag?
      - dang 4y ago
        I can't tell you why users flagged it, and we don't often unflag things that users have flagged. But if you want a reason: the comment wasn't just saying a couple of true things neutrally; it was baiting a drama that has already played out repetitively quite a few times, and is not possible to discuss publicly.
    - sillysaurusx 4y ago
      (Admins flag too; it’s their duty. We wouldn’t want to be here if users were the only ones doing the flagging, for a bunch of reasons. Suffice to say, the HN team does a fantastic job.)

sillysaurusx 4y ago

One way to view those is to go into your profile and flip “showdead” to yes. Careful of the zombies though.

garbagetime 4y ago
I don't think that works. It will show the dead, but not their children.
- sillysaurusx 4y ago
  Hmm. Could you point out an example? If something related to the showdead mechanics have changed, that would be quite interesting. For me, it’s always reliably shown everything.
  - garbagetime 4y ago
    Sure. Here's a recent comment from the user dang: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34271566 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34271566 And here's his page, where the comment can't be seen: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dang https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=dang --- And here's another comment, also from dang, where he talked about this: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34264605 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34264605 > this how HN's software works these days. We didn't do anything specific to the thread; it's just that users flagged the root comment.
    - sillysaurusx 4y ago
      That’s interesting. I suspect it’s special cased for admin accounts specifically. The reason might be that users often pick fights with mods. Dan’s comment page might be overwhelmed by such threads if left unchecked. pg once noted that pg’s own account was highly watched relative to other accounts, so maybe users were following Dan around and adding fuel to the very fires he was trying to put out. The reason I say that is because I can’t find any examples of this phenomenon except his account. Do you know of any? E.g. this thread does show up on the flagged user’s profile page, contrary to what others were saying. It’s right below this one for me: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=breck&next=34266186#34271727 https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=breck&next=34266186#... It also seems to show up on everyone else’s page: mine, tptacek’s, etc. Cheers for pointing that out. Stuff like this is fascinating, and we rarely get the chance to nerd out about it. EDIT: interestingly, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34265016 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34265016 does show up.
      - garbagetime 4y ago
        Simple explanation, I'm afraid: I was dumb. There are no exceptions (...at least, none that I'm currently aware of). Dang's "missing comment" actually is on his page, just not where I was looking. The comment was new, but it was a descendant of one of dang's older comments, so it appears further back in his profile than where I looked.
        sillysaurusx 4y ago
        It’s a surprisingly easy mistake to make. I thought it might be that, so I triple checked, and still missed it. So you’re not alone. One time many years ago, I almost emailed a bug report claiming the very same thing. Luckily I noticed right beforehand. It speaks to Dan’s dedication that he did so much for the site in a single day that both of us missed his comment buried in the avalanche. :) In fairness, the discussion was a little confusing, since it was combining a few different topics (showdead, OPs thread, flagging, and admin’ing) so a mixup probably isn’t too surprising. HN is completely fascinating, and I appreciated the analytical eye you were bringing to it. If you keep doing that, you’ll notice a ton of surprising little details over time. Minimaxir tried to document them in “undocumented features of hacker news” and the list is still far from complete. Plus it’s cool that the site is ever-evolving. One of my favorite new features is that if you go to an old submission, e.g, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1 (or thereabouts), all the users’ names will show up in green if they were a new account at the time. I.e. it preserves the historical fact of someone being a new user in a given comment thread. It’s such a small detail, yet there are quite literally thousands of such small details that all add up to something wonderful. Regardless, have a good weekend, and cheers for the chat.

dang 4y ago

> this comment doesn't show up (probably because it's a descendant of a flagged comment) Correct - this how HN's software works these days. We didn't do anything specific to the thread; it's just that users flagged the root comment. Btw I wasn't part of any internal YC discussions about banning anybody but I know and like breck from our time in W09 together, I have a lot of experience with this on the HN side, and you're unlikely to be able to extract the real story from material on the internet. Speaking generally, there's an asymmetry with stories like this: one side can take to the open internet and say anything, while the other side can't or won't—and sometimes one of the reasons, ironically, is to protect that very person.

nmfisher 4y ago
Irrespective of how many sides there are to the original story, why is the parent comment flagged? He did YC, but he's not in the directory - those two statements are true, no?
- tptacek 4y ago
  He can't tell you. Users flag things, not admins.
  - nmfisher 4y ago
    Admins can’t unflag?
    - dang 4y ago
      I can't tell you why users flagged it, and we don't often unflag things that users have flagged. But if you want a reason: the comment wasn't just saying a couple of true things neutrally; it was baiting a drama that has already played out repetitively quite a few times, and is not possible to discuss publicly.
  - sillysaurusx 4y ago
    (Admins flag too; it’s their duty. We wouldn’t want to be here if users were the only ones doing the flagging, for a bunch of reasons. Suffice to say, the HN team does a fantastic job.)