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> - If someone replies to this HN comment I just wrote, and I don't like it, and I can delete their comment (because there is an thread ownership concept on Blu

> - If someone replies to this HN comment I just wrote, and I don't like it, and I can delete their comment (because there is an thread ownership concept on BlueSky, and the earliest comment is the owner); You can hide it - which I agree is functionally equivalent to deleting it as people are very unlikely to go dig for hidden comments. FWIW this is kinda similar to "flagging" a comment on HN, which (as far as I understand) will cause it to be hidden for everyone - at least until someone vouches it back. > - If someone links to this HN comment I just wrote, and I don't like it, I can make that hyperlink disappear, or invalidate in some way (because BlueSky is a locked API garden and hyperlinks are not plain text, but magic cloud API tokens) You can just make the hyperlink disappear to anyone using the default BlueSky frontend. But from my understanding, the hyperlink will still be accessible through the API.

AnimalMuppet 2y ago
The difference is that on actual HN, it takes more than one flag vote to hide a comment. (I suspect it's in the range 2-5, but I don't actually know.) So one person can't make a post they don't like disappear.
- thenewnewguy 2y ago
  Also, anyone can flag a comment, not just the thread starter (I personally suspect flags from the thread starter are actually down-weighted). HN flagging is not meant to hide people you don't want to see reply to your comments, it is meant to identify rule-breaking comments.
- teruakohatu 2y ago
  > The difference is that on actual HN, it takes more than one flag vote to hide a comment. (I suspect it's in the range 2-5, but I don't actually know.) So one person can't make a post they don't like disappear. I don't know, but I would suspect if the user who wrote the parent comment flags a reply, it would be less weight than if another random user flagged it.
an_ko 2y ago
To clarify how flagging works on HN: Flagging only hides a comment once "enough" users flag it, and even then remains visible to users with the showdead option set in their profile. Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12173809 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12173809
- throwup238 2y ago
  Where "enough" = two accounts.
  - PaulHoule 2y ago
    I think. I know N>1 because I sometimes flag something and it is not suppressed right away. Often though I flag something and then it is suppressed a few minutes later so I believe N=2 or N=3 or something small like that. For that matter a lot of posts get suppressed right away, particularly from people who visit HN and immediately start posting stories from the same blog over and over again.
    - perihelions 2y ago
      I think you can estimate the threshold by just counting the ratio of times you flag something and it immediately dies. You would wait a while to see which items die or do not die, and discard the subset which never die, and consider only the subset of items that transitioned to [flagged][dead]. If the [flagged] logic is simply "flags >= N", then of the subset of samples that are flag-killed with your involvement, you will be final flag in 1 of N of those. The null hypothesis is "this experiment converges to a reciprocal integer".
      - runarberg 2y ago
        I feel like this requires an assumption that any post you flag is equally likely to be flagged by other users, and at a similar time as you, in other words that your flagging behavior is very similar to others that use this feature. I guess this might give you a pretty nice upper estimate though. Unless N is very high / very few users use the feature, and you are frequently much later to the scene as the average user of the feature. Then N may be underestimated.
curtisblaine 2y ago
> which I agree is functionally equivalent to deleting it as people are very unlikely to go dig for hidden comments. I think you're being very optimistic here.
layer8 2y ago
> You can hide it - which I agree is functionally equivalent to deleting it as people are very unlikely to go dig for hidden comments. My understanding is that hidden replies are just one extra click away. From TFA: “All hidden replies will be placed behind a Hidden replies screen — so they’re still accessible, but much less visible.” Probably not much different from a collapsed subthread on Reddit.

AnimalMuppet 2y ago

The difference is that on actual HN, it takes more than one flag vote to hide a comment. (I suspect it's in the range 2-5, but I don't actually know.) So one person can't make a post they don't like disappear.

thenewnewguy 2y ago
Also, anyone can flag a comment, not just the thread starter (I personally suspect flags from the thread starter are actually down-weighted). HN flagging is not meant to hide people you don't want to see reply to your comments, it is meant to identify rule-breaking comments.
teruakohatu 2y ago
> The difference is that on actual HN, it takes more than one flag vote to hide a comment. (I suspect it's in the range 2-5, but I don't actually know.) So one person can't make a post they don't like disappear. I don't know, but I would suspect if the user who wrote the parent comment flags a reply, it would be less weight than if another random user flagged it.

an_ko 2y ago

To clarify how flagging works on HN: Flagging only hides a comment once "enough" users flag it, and even then remains visible to users with the showdead option set in their profile. Source: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12173809 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12173809

throwup238 2y ago
Where "enough" = two accounts.
- PaulHoule 2y ago
  I think. I know N>1 because I sometimes flag something and it is not suppressed right away. Often though I flag something and then it is suppressed a few minutes later so I believe N=2 or N=3 or something small like that. For that matter a lot of posts get suppressed right away, particularly from people who visit HN and immediately start posting stories from the same blog over and over again.
  - perihelions 2y ago
    I think you can estimate the threshold by just counting the ratio of times you flag something and it immediately dies. You would wait a while to see which items die or do not die, and discard the subset which never die, and consider only the subset of items that transitioned to [flagged][dead]. If the [flagged] logic is simply "flags >= N", then of the subset of samples that are flag-killed with your involvement, you will be final flag in 1 of N of those. The null hypothesis is "this experiment converges to a reciprocal integer".
    - runarberg 2y ago
      I feel like this requires an assumption that any post you flag is equally likely to be flagged by other users, and at a similar time as you, in other words that your flagging behavior is very similar to others that use this feature. I guess this might give you a pretty nice upper estimate though. Unless N is very high / very few users use the feature, and you are frequently much later to the scene as the average user of the feature. Then N may be underestimated.

curtisblaine 2y ago

> which I agree is functionally equivalent to deleting it as people are very unlikely to go dig for hidden comments. I think you're being very optimistic here.

layer8 2y ago

> You can hide it - which I agree is functionally equivalent to deleting it as people are very unlikely to go dig for hidden comments. My understanding is that hidden replies are just one extra click away. From TFA: “All hidden replies will be placed behind a Hidden replies screen — so they’re still accessible, but much less visible.” Probably not much different from a collapsed subthread on Reddit.