7 ms·

Why is this flagged? What rule does it violate?

raxxorraxor 2y ago
Articles get flagged if users perceive it to not be desired content and not necessarily because it violates a specific rule.
- jules-jules 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - TwentyPosts 2y ago
    You'd be surprised by how many HN users would prefer to keep politics-first-tech-second news off the site.
    - runarberg 2y ago
      [flagged]
      - ipaddr 2y ago
        Everytime I submit a github project it becomes [dead] immediately. You expect political drama submissions not to be flagged as offtopic?
        dang 2y ago
        Since there are no examples of that at https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=ipaddr https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=ipaddr, I assume you're talking about a different account. It's possible that account is banned, but more likely your self-posts might be getting filtered by HN's software which tries to apply this guideline: "Please don't use HN primarily for promotion. It's ok to post your own stuff part of the time, but the primary use of the site should be for curiosity.:.
      - luckylion 2y ago
        There's reddit.com if you need to vent your outrage about technology and politics. We don't need to turn every website on the internet into reddit, it's okay to have some websites focus on other things.
      - TwentyPosts 2y ago
        I specifically made sure not to claim that "tech is not political", because that would be wrong. The issue is that "X used fake accounts to push political agenda on social media" might be interesting political news, but it's incredibly boring technical news. Everyone knows that this is possible, and the only novel information here is political. I'd say that if you posted news which are interesting in how they relate to tech, and also political, you're going to (or at least should have) more success than this article. Even just a proper analysis of how widespread fake political social media accounts area, deeper statistics, more novel processes of this happening, etc. would all be interesting, and would not fall in the politics-first-tech-second bucket.
    - dang 2y ago
      This issue goes back as far as the site itself: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17014869 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17014869 and the way we handle it has was worked out over a decade ago: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=political%20overlap%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so... If anyone has questions about this, take a look at those links and if there's something unanswered there, I'd be happy to take a crack at it.
RabbiNoseberg 2y ago
[flagged]
dang 2y ago
Posts on all sides of this topic get flagged quickly (by users), and mods turn off the flags on limited occasions—mostly when some significant new information arises and there's at least some chance of a substantive discussion about it. It's pretty important that most stories about this conflict and similar current affairs get flagged, because otherwise HN's front page would consist of little else, and that's not the purpose of the site. But it's also important that the topics not be ignored completely, even though they're painful. There's no happy medium here, unfortunately. Here are some links to previous explanations. If you (or anyone, of course) have a look at these and still have a question that isn't answered there, I'd be happy to take a crack at it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40418881 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40418881 (May 2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39920732 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39920732 (April 2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39618973 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39618973 (March 2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39435324 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39435324 (Feb 2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39435024 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39435024 (Feb 2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39237176 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39237176 (Feb 2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39161344 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39161344 (Jan 2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38947003 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38947003 (Jan 2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38749162 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38749162 (Dec 2023) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38657527 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38657527 (Dec 2023)
- erellsworth 2y ago
  Thank you for the explanation.
- jakupovic 2y ago
  Thanks Dang this is much better than previously.
- DevX101 2y ago
  Appreciate the case by case basis approach to moderation here. There are quite a few topics where discussion becomes suppressed when blanket bans are enforced.

Articles get flagged if users perceive it to not be desired content and not necessarily because it violates a specific rule.

jules-jules 2y ago
[flagged]
- TwentyPosts 2y ago
  You'd be surprised by how many HN users would prefer to keep politics-first-tech-second news off the site.
  - runarberg 2y ago
    [flagged]
    - ipaddr 2y ago
      Everytime I submit a github project it becomes [dead] immediately. You expect political drama submissions not to be flagged as offtopic?
      - dang 2y ago
        Since there are no examples of that at https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=ipaddr https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=ipaddr, I assume you're talking about a different account. It's possible that account is banned, but more likely your self-posts might be getting filtered by HN's software which tries to apply this guideline: "Please don't use HN primarily for promotion. It's ok to post your own stuff part of the time, but the primary use of the site should be for curiosity.:.
    - luckylion 2y ago
      There's reddit.com if you need to vent your outrage about technology and politics. We don't need to turn every website on the internet into reddit, it's okay to have some websites focus on other things.
    - TwentyPosts 2y ago
      I specifically made sure not to claim that "tech is not political", because that would be wrong. The issue is that "X used fake accounts to push political agenda on social media" might be interesting political news, but it's incredibly boring technical news. Everyone knows that this is possible, and the only novel information here is political. I'd say that if you posted news which are interesting in how they relate to tech, and also political, you're going to (or at least should have) more success than this article. Even just a proper analysis of how widespread fake political social media accounts area, deeper statistics, more novel processes of this happening, etc. would all be interesting, and would not fall in the politics-first-tech-second bucket.
  - dang 2y ago
    This issue goes back as far as the site itself: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17014869 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17014869 and the way we handle it has was worked out over a decade ago: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=political%20overlap%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so... If anyone has questions about this, take a look at those links and if there's something unanswered there, I'd be happy to take a crack at it.

RabbiNoseberg 2y ago

[flagged]

dang 2y ago

Posts on all sides of this topic get flagged quickly (by users), and mods turn off the flags on limited occasions—mostly when some significant new information arises and there's at least some chance of a substantive discussion about it. It's pretty important that most stories about this conflict and similar current affairs get flagged, because otherwise HN's front page would consist of little else, and that's not the purpose of the site. But it's also important that the topics not be ignored completely, even though they're painful. There's no happy medium here, unfortunately. Here are some links to previous explanations. If you (or anyone, of course) have a look at these and still have a question that isn't answered there, I'd be happy to take a crack at it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40418881 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40418881 (May 2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39920732 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39920732 (April 2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39618973 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39618973 (March 2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39435324 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39435324 (Feb 2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39435024 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39435024 (Feb 2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39237176 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39237176 (Feb 2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39161344 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39161344 (Jan 2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38947003 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38947003 (Jan 2024) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38749162 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38749162 (Dec 2023) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38657527 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38657527 (Dec 2023)

erellsworth 2y ago
Thank you for the explanation.
jakupovic 2y ago
Thanks Dang this is much better than previously.
DevX101 2y ago
Appreciate the case by case basis approach to moderation here. There are quite a few topics where discussion becomes suppressed when blanket bans are enforced.