8 ms·

There is another thread about this, and for some reason it's no longer on the front page, despite having lots of upvotes and comments. Are people flagging it?

There is another thread about this, and for some reason it's no longer on the front page, despite having lots of upvotes and comments. Are people flagging it? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34772687 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34772687

causi 4y ago
Interesting. That's only the second time I've seen a moderator manually remove something that wasn't flagged.
ImHereToVote 4y ago
It was just the invisible hand of the market that took it down.
- whitemary 4y ago
  LOL
- Freedom2 4y ago
  [dead]
PuppyTailWags 4y ago
I believe dang has explained there's an additional nuance to ranking where something that gets a lot of engagement quickly is actually penalized. I assume to try and tamp down on flame wars.
- Workaccount2 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - colpabar 4y ago
    Well I haven't been on reddit so I can't say what's being said there, but I would say that the reason people are getting so upset over this is because we don't believe anything meaningful will happen to punish those responsible or prevent it from happening again. Norfolk Southern spent $10b on stock buybacks last year, and so far they have only given $25k to the local red cross and are trying to buy people off with $1k to sign an NDA. It's a cover up. Frankly I wouldn't care if the tankers were filled with water - they fucked up and should be punished in a way that hurts them.
    - Workaccount2 4y ago
      That's true, but lying and fear mongering is not a good means to an end. People on reddit were advising Ohioans to take their family and choice valuables and immediately leave the state. To head west to avoid "chemical fallout". Totally detached insanity. Like I said, the disaster was was bad. It shouldn't ever happen. But eastern Ohio is absolutely not an exclusion zone now. By now the site is already mostly clear.
      - colpabar 4y ago
        Why are you talking about reddit though? If everyone there is so wrong, why bring it up on a totally different website? No one here is making those claims, and most of the comments in both of these threads are about the points I mentioned.
        Workaccount2 4y ago
        Because I'm speaking to why the previous post was removed, and why this one likely will be too (its velocity is already crazy compared to other posts). Someone is funding a social media blitz to amp up public fear about this event to 11. I am telling HN, use your head not your knee jerk.
        ruszki 4y ago
        Yes, I have the same feeling. It doesn’t seem organic to me at all. There were no larger outrage in comments than under any standard outrage posts. But still, this pops up continuously with such a speed all the time, that the comments under it seems like totally underwhelming. And nothing new happened for the past almost one week.
        iinnPP 4y ago
        Preventable accidents that result in explosions, any amount of unneeded pollution, fear and anxiety, among others is worthy of this attention. Further, it is being noted that safety regulations were ignored. There's also the fact that people have come to expect the people responsible will face no consequence and will instead probably receive a raise for a "job well done." There is lots to be upset about. Not everyone lives on the internet to know events happen as they happen. What you are suggesting is nothing more than a conspiracy theory and I hate that term. Provide some bloody evidence, anything other than "my gut."
  - CPLX 4y ago
    From a policy perspective, what do you think the right amount of accidents like this one is? Assuming you had a mandate to regulate this industry, what would you consider an appropriate metric for hazardous material incidents that you would try to regulate the industry towards?
    - Workaccount2 4y ago
      Zero accidents. My issue isn't about the accident. My issue is that there is a group trying to use the accident as political leverage, which is totally fine, except that they are being completely dishonest about the magnitude of the disaster. That's almost certainly why the original post got pulled, there is a focused campaign on blowing up this event to "great 21st century national tragedy" when in reality there are hundreds of environmental disasters on this scale annually, and you don't hear about it because the actual environmental impact isn't that large and it's not a politically charged event.
      - Loughla 4y ago
        I want you to hear your argument from the outside. Maybe that will help you understand why people seem to be disagreeing with you. What I'm reading: This is a disaster, but it's not as bad as what some people are saying online. We shouldn't really worry about it, because releasing this small amount of this chemical isn't really as bad of a problem as a nuclear power plant melting down. This disaster isn't special, it's just one of many, and it upsets me that people are treating it like it's special. That's how your arguments seem to be structured, and to be honest, I don't really understand what you're trying to get at. That would be why the person who you're responding to asked how many accidents like this are acceptable. Because you seem to be hand-waving and saying, this isn't that bad. It's very confusing.
        Workaccount2 4y ago
        People on reddit were talking about abandoning their home to head out west in order to avoid the "fallout" of the disaster. Uproot your family and say goodbye to home, it's now lost. The group pushing this is stoking maximum fear and panic, and it's just not warranted. So the heart of my argument is "There is a lot of misinformation being peddled around this disaster, be vigilant." There are real people who will make real decisions based on what they know. It's best they know the truth, rather than be a pawn in some political game. Also the original reason I replied was to point out that the post was almost certainly removed because it tripped bot alarms.
  - PragmaticPulp 4y ago
    > There has 100% been a campaign by some group to make this disaster out to be way worse than it is. It's been all over reddit the last few days with scientifically thin, but fear mongering heavy videos/comments. That’s not a campaign, that’s just Reddit as normal. Reddit takes something that is directionally correct (chemical spill is bad) and then turns it into a competition for the most extreme and exaggerated takes. I took a quick glance at the first front page thread I could find on the topic. One of the top threads was a pseudo-scientific explanation that exposure to even trace amounts of the chemical results in death, implying that large swaths of the state were going to be dead soon. It’s amazing how Reddit turned into one giant conspiracy theory website.
    - addandsubtract 4y ago
      As an outsider, with no knowledge of (burning) chemicals, it's hard to judge the situation, though. It looks bad and sounds bad, so why should it not be bad? Reddit is making it sound like a cover-up and conspiracy by the newspapers and powers that be, but isn't really offering any metrics or related studies – only anecdotes.
  - bob1029 4y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, bots, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data.
    - Workaccount2 4y ago
      The velocity of this post is already high enough that they are aware.
Fricken 4y ago
Posts that rise quickly and generate many comments in a short period of time on HN tend to fall quickly as well, as posts that follow such a pattern are typically inflammatory in nature.
bitcharmer 4y ago
Sadly HN's front page is heavily moderated. For actually popular submissions not hand picked by dang you can visit: https://news.ycombinator.com/active https://news.ycombinator.com/active
- dcow 4y ago
  What happened to /best? Was it too convenient for reposting sites? Edit: nvm it’s still there. Must have mistyped it earlier.
mandmandam 4y ago
This is one of those third rail topics that gets stuffed under the rug. Even meta discussion of the topics or the flagging abuse itself is verboten.

causi 4y ago

Interesting. That's only the second time I've seen a moderator manually remove something that wasn't flagged.

ImHereToVote 4y ago

It was just the invisible hand of the market that took it down.

whitemary 4y ago
LOL
Freedom2 4y ago
[dead]

PuppyTailWags 4y ago

I believe dang has explained there's an additional nuance to ranking where something that gets a lot of engagement quickly is actually penalized. I assume to try and tamp down on flame wars.

Workaccount2 4y ago
[flagged]
- colpabar 4y ago
  Well I haven't been on reddit so I can't say what's being said there, but I would say that the reason people are getting so upset over this is because we don't believe anything meaningful will happen to punish those responsible or prevent it from happening again. Norfolk Southern spent $10b on stock buybacks last year, and so far they have only given $25k to the local red cross and are trying to buy people off with $1k to sign an NDA. It's a cover up. Frankly I wouldn't care if the tankers were filled with water - they fucked up and should be punished in a way that hurts them.
  - Workaccount2 4y ago
    That's true, but lying and fear mongering is not a good means to an end. People on reddit were advising Ohioans to take their family and choice valuables and immediately leave the state. To head west to avoid "chemical fallout". Totally detached insanity. Like I said, the disaster was was bad. It shouldn't ever happen. But eastern Ohio is absolutely not an exclusion zone now. By now the site is already mostly clear.
    - colpabar 4y ago
      Why are you talking about reddit though? If everyone there is so wrong, why bring it up on a totally different website? No one here is making those claims, and most of the comments in both of these threads are about the points I mentioned.
      - Workaccount2 4y ago
        Because I'm speaking to why the previous post was removed, and why this one likely will be too (its velocity is already crazy compared to other posts). Someone is funding a social media blitz to amp up public fear about this event to 11. I am telling HN, use your head not your knee jerk.
        ruszki 4y ago
        Yes, I have the same feeling. It doesn’t seem organic to me at all. There were no larger outrage in comments than under any standard outrage posts. But still, this pops up continuously with such a speed all the time, that the comments under it seems like totally underwhelming. And nothing new happened for the past almost one week.
        iinnPP 4y ago
        Preventable accidents that result in explosions, any amount of unneeded pollution, fear and anxiety, among others is worthy of this attention. Further, it is being noted that safety regulations were ignored. There's also the fact that people have come to expect the people responsible will face no consequence and will instead probably receive a raise for a "job well done." There is lots to be upset about. Not everyone lives on the internet to know events happen as they happen. What you are suggesting is nothing more than a conspiracy theory and I hate that term. Provide some bloody evidence, anything other than "my gut."
- CPLX 4y ago
  From a policy perspective, what do you think the right amount of accidents like this one is? Assuming you had a mandate to regulate this industry, what would you consider an appropriate metric for hazardous material incidents that you would try to regulate the industry towards?
  - Workaccount2 4y ago
    Zero accidents. My issue isn't about the accident. My issue is that there is a group trying to use the accident as political leverage, which is totally fine, except that they are being completely dishonest about the magnitude of the disaster. That's almost certainly why the original post got pulled, there is a focused campaign on blowing up this event to "great 21st century national tragedy" when in reality there are hundreds of environmental disasters on this scale annually, and you don't hear about it because the actual environmental impact isn't that large and it's not a politically charged event.
    - Loughla 4y ago
      I want you to hear your argument from the outside. Maybe that will help you understand why people seem to be disagreeing with you. What I'm reading: This is a disaster, but it's not as bad as what some people are saying online. We shouldn't really worry about it, because releasing this small amount of this chemical isn't really as bad of a problem as a nuclear power plant melting down. This disaster isn't special, it's just one of many, and it upsets me that people are treating it like it's special. That's how your arguments seem to be structured, and to be honest, I don't really understand what you're trying to get at. That would be why the person who you're responding to asked how many accidents like this are acceptable. Because you seem to be hand-waving and saying, this isn't that bad. It's very confusing.
      - Workaccount2 4y ago
        People on reddit were talking about abandoning their home to head out west in order to avoid the "fallout" of the disaster. Uproot your family and say goodbye to home, it's now lost. The group pushing this is stoking maximum fear and panic, and it's just not warranted. So the heart of my argument is "There is a lot of misinformation being peddled around this disaster, be vigilant." There are real people who will make real decisions based on what they know. It's best they know the truth, rather than be a pawn in some political game. Also the original reason I replied was to point out that the post was almost certainly removed because it tripped bot alarms.
- PragmaticPulp 4y ago
  > There has 100% been a campaign by some group to make this disaster out to be way worse than it is. It's been all over reddit the last few days with scientifically thin, but fear mongering heavy videos/comments. That’s not a campaign, that’s just Reddit as normal. Reddit takes something that is directionally correct (chemical spill is bad) and then turns it into a competition for the most extreme and exaggerated takes. I took a quick glance at the first front page thread I could find on the topic. One of the top threads was a pseudo-scientific explanation that exposure to even trace amounts of the chemical results in death, implying that large swaths of the state were going to be dead soon. It’s amazing how Reddit turned into one giant conspiracy theory website.
  - addandsubtract 4y ago
    As an outsider, with no knowledge of (burning) chemicals, it's hard to judge the situation, though. It looks bad and sounds bad, so why should it not be bad? Reddit is making it sound like a cover-up and conspiracy by the newspapers and powers that be, but isn't really offering any metrics or related studies – only anecdotes.
- bob1029 4y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html > Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, bots, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data.
  - Workaccount2 4y ago
    The velocity of this post is already high enough that they are aware.

Fricken 4y ago

Posts that rise quickly and generate many comments in a short period of time on HN tend to fall quickly as well, as posts that follow such a pattern are typically inflammatory in nature.

bitcharmer 4y ago

Sadly HN's front page is heavily moderated. For actually popular submissions not hand picked by dang you can visit: https://news.ycombinator.com/active https://news.ycombinator.com/active

dcow 4y ago
What happened to /best? Was it too convenient for reposting sites? Edit: nvm it’s still there. Must have mistyped it earlier.

mandmandam 4y ago

This is one of those third rail topics that gets stuffed under the rug. Even meta discussion of the topics or the flagging abuse itself is verboten.