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I wonder why there isn't more discussion of this on HN; a mutiny by Russia's largest mercenary company is a significant event that could have a big effect on th

I wonder why there isn't more discussion of this on HN; a mutiny by Russia's largest mercenary company is a significant event that could have a big effect on the world, given Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine. It's also not a very politically sensitive topic.

zgluck 3y ago
It's because things are being systematically flagged. Like this comment within a few seconds. This started happening 6+ hours ago. There have been many (20+) posts about this. All of them silenced by means of aggressive flagging. I strongly feel that HN has failed here.
- logicchains 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - zgluck 3y ago
    [flagged]
- TheLoafOfBread 3y ago
  No necessarily. You just need relatively small amount of accounts who are trying to suppress this information. I don't think that HN was ever built to counter full blown informational warfare.
everyone 3y ago
There has been one big thread already but it is flagged. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36452290 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36452290 Im genuinely curious why they are getting flagged. Like seriously are IRA members HN moderators or something?
- callahad 3y ago
  I flagged this. Hacker News doesn't need to be an omnichannel; if other venues will cover this, and cover it well, then it's fine to leave it to them. The Guidelines say much the same: "If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic."
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - clipsy 3y ago
    > The Guidelines say much the same: "If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic." "probably"
    - callahad 3y ago
      Indeed. This is important, and I pray Ukraine prevails in the broader conflict. But HN doesn't do well with breaking news, and this submission in particular was of rather poor quality: three sentences and a Telegram embed, all behind a Cloudflare CAPTCHA wall. Not that I'm any arbiter of HN's content, but I'd flag that kind of submission regardless of topic.
  - kristianp 3y ago
    However significant global events are often the exception to this rule. Did the russian invasion of Ukraine get a blackout on HN?
    - vba616 3y ago
      Everything is an exception to the rule! There is nothing so contrary to the Guidelines that it won't show up. I see "Taboola" items on the default Microsoft front page of Edge and they appear on HN. I grant that the worst of it comes in waves, but I just do not see this place as remotely being what it aspires to be. Whatever conspiratorial activity exists at the moment on HN is clearly devoted to the silly accusations of censorship. Any real geopolitical events will continue tomorrow and be widely reported on all over the world.
- gettodachoppa 3y ago
  I just flagged this. First time I ever flag something on HN. When I try to access it I get: "Sorry, you have been blocked. You are unable to access censor.net. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data." But I totally understand people who flag political articles. It turns HN into reddit. I actually wish I had the discipline not to click them, because I end up seeing the typical infuriating neo-lib HN comments and I can't help but reply. What's wrong with wanting HN not to have politics and keep a tech/education focus? Every other social media on the Internet is packed to the brim with political content, we can go literally anywhere else if we want that. (And please don't answer "being apolitical is being political" or "oh, look at the privileged fatcat who can afford to be apolitical" that's just the sort of lib cliches that annoy me)
clipsy 3y ago
Because flagging is effectively a super-down-vote available to low karma posters and HN does not seem to have any meaningful response to topics being silenced via flagging for political reasons. I suppose from the YC/dang perspective anything contentious enough to draw orchestrated flagging is contentious enough to draw trolls, shills, etc so perhaps it is viewed as a non-issue that these topics get silenced.
- lost_tourist 3y ago
  Can't dang or someone just ignore it and pin it and leave a couple up if they appear to be from trustworthy news sources?
  - zgluck 3y ago
    [flagged]
  - civilitty 3y ago
    [flagged]
carrolldunham 3y ago
there is such a thing as normalNews which will cover this completely
- logicchains 3y ago
  The same applied to when Russia began the war on Ukraine, but that was heavily discussed here
s9w 3y ago
[dead]

zgluck 3y ago

It's because things are being systematically flagged. Like this comment within a few seconds. This started happening 6+ hours ago. There have been many (20+) posts about this. All of them silenced by means of aggressive flagging. I strongly feel that HN has failed here.

logicchains 3y ago
[flagged]
- zgluck 3y ago
  [flagged]
TheLoafOfBread 3y ago
No necessarily. You just need relatively small amount of accounts who are trying to suppress this information. I don't think that HN was ever built to counter full blown informational warfare.

everyone 3y ago

There has been one big thread already but it is flagged. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36452290 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36452290 Im genuinely curious why they are getting flagged. Like seriously are IRA members HN moderators or something?

callahad 3y ago
I flagged this. Hacker News doesn't need to be an omnichannel; if other venues will cover this, and cover it well, then it's fine to leave it to them. The Guidelines say much the same: "If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic."
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- clipsy 3y ago
  > The Guidelines say much the same: "If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic." "probably"
  - callahad 3y ago
    Indeed. This is important, and I pray Ukraine prevails in the broader conflict. But HN doesn't do well with breaking news, and this submission in particular was of rather poor quality: three sentences and a Telegram embed, all behind a Cloudflare CAPTCHA wall. Not that I'm any arbiter of HN's content, but I'd flag that kind of submission regardless of topic.
- kristianp 3y ago
  However significant global events are often the exception to this rule. Did the russian invasion of Ukraine get a blackout on HN?
  - vba616 3y ago
    Everything is an exception to the rule! There is nothing so contrary to the Guidelines that it won't show up. I see "Taboola" items on the default Microsoft front page of Edge and they appear on HN. I grant that the worst of it comes in waves, but I just do not see this place as remotely being what it aspires to be. Whatever conspiratorial activity exists at the moment on HN is clearly devoted to the silly accusations of censorship. Any real geopolitical events will continue tomorrow and be widely reported on all over the world.
gettodachoppa 3y ago
I just flagged this. First time I ever flag something on HN. When I try to access it I get: "Sorry, you have been blocked. You are unable to access censor.net. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data." But I totally understand people who flag political articles. It turns HN into reddit. I actually wish I had the discipline not to click them, because I end up seeing the typical infuriating neo-lib HN comments and I can't help but reply. What's wrong with wanting HN not to have politics and keep a tech/education focus? Every other social media on the Internet is packed to the brim with political content, we can go literally anywhere else if we want that. (And please don't answer "being apolitical is being political" or "oh, look at the privileged fatcat who can afford to be apolitical" that's just the sort of lib cliches that annoy me)

clipsy 3y ago

Because flagging is effectively a super-down-vote available to low karma posters and HN does not seem to have any meaningful response to topics being silenced via flagging for political reasons. I suppose from the YC/dang perspective anything contentious enough to draw orchestrated flagging is contentious enough to draw trolls, shills, etc so perhaps it is viewed as a non-issue that these topics get silenced.

lost_tourist 3y ago
Can't dang or someone just ignore it and pin it and leave a couple up if they appear to be from trustworthy news sources?
- zgluck 3y ago
  [flagged]
- civilitty 3y ago
  [flagged]

carrolldunham 3y ago

there is such a thing as normalNews which will cover this completely

logicchains 3y ago
The same applied to when Russia began the war on Ukraine, but that was heavily discussed here

s9w 3y ago

[dead]