3 ms·

Honest question: how do things get unflagged? Do users at some level gain vouch privileges?

johnnyanmac 2y ago
They 99.99999% of the time don't. I think only dang has that ability and he won't really step in unless there are some truly rouge actors.
- dang 2y ago
  > unless there are some truly rouge actors It's more a question of the article. What we're looking for includes: is the article not too repetitive of recent discussions? does it contain significant new information? is there a reasonable chance that it could support a substantive, thoughtful discussion, or is it too flamebaity/provocative? that kind of thing. Here's a subthread from yesterday where I went into this in depth: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911011 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911011. Past explanations: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20turn%20off%20flags&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que.... If anyone has a question that isn't answered at those links, I'd be happy to take a crack at it.
  - archagon 2y ago
    Can you tell if there's a concerted effort to flag Musk and DOGE related threads? I've seen threads go from nothing to [flagged][dead] in the course of 30 seconds after being up for 40 minutes, suggesting very spiky flagging behavior. This has come up a few times recently, for example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42904148 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42904148 (Of course, I could just be misunderstanding how flagging works on the site... maybe the state machine has to transition in order from regular -> [flagged][dead] -> [flagged] after vouching?)
    - dang 2y ago
      I haven't looked specifically at DOGE stories but from my general perspective, this is the same as what we see with all the hottest/most divisive topics—that is, it's the same with Musk in general, Trump in general, and Israel/Gaza, to name perhaps the 3 most in-that-category topics.
  - m2024 2y ago
    [dead]
justin66 2y ago
If you use the vouch feature much, eventually they take it away from you. Same with upvoting and downvoting, but it all happens silently so most people don't notice.
- relaxing 2y ago
  That’s funny, I thought at one point I saw vouch link for comments, but no longer. I doubt I used it more than once. Does that mean it got taken away?
  - justin66 2y ago
    I couldn't say for sure but... I think so? It's the same for me, I used to have it and now I don't.
    - dang 2y ago
      In your case that was true. General explanation here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42902318 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42902318. I didn't see much misuse of vouching in your recent history so I've removed that penalty from your account now. But please make sure that the comments you're vouching for are respecting the site guidelines (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).
      - zfg 2y ago
        Why don't you make such things transparent and clear on a user's account so they can see what you've done? You're keen on reviewing a user's recent history, but provide no corresponding transparency to the user on what you've done.
        dang 2y ago
        Because I'm scared of how much extra work it would create, and because it's the sort of frog-boiling bureaucratism that it is in the spirit of this site to avoid. It's easy for me to imagine that one day I would wake up and be horrified by the systems we had inadvertently let sprout up around ourselves. HN works best with informal systems, not formal ones. The informal contract around transparency is: people are welcome to ask questions and we always answer them, but we don't formally publish a moderation log or anything like that (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20moderation%20log&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...).
minimaxir 2y ago
If a post is flagged-but-you-can-still-comment, then it can't be vouched. If a post is flagkilled w/ comments disabled, then you can typically vouch.
dredmorbius 2y ago
It's possible to vouch for stories and comments. You can also email moderators at hn@ycombintor.com to request unflagging. I do that occasionally, with mixed results. (I've come to know which are long shots, and typically concede the point, but at least make the attempt.)
- dredmorbius 2y ago
  Correction: vouch only works on comments. For stories, email mods as discussed elsewhere and in both the HN FAQ & Guidelines: FAQ: <https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html> Guidelines: <https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html> Both are linked at the bottom of most HN pages.

They 99.99999% of the time don't. I think only dang has that ability and he won't really step in unless there are some truly rouge actors.

dang 2y ago
> unless there are some truly rouge actors It's more a question of the article. What we're looking for includes: is the article not too repetitive of recent discussions? does it contain significant new information? is there a reasonable chance that it could support a substantive, thoughtful discussion, or is it too flamebaity/provocative? that kind of thing. Here's a subthread from yesterday where I went into this in depth: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911011 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911011. Past explanations: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20turn%20off%20flags&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que.... If anyone has a question that isn't answered at those links, I'd be happy to take a crack at it.
- archagon 2y ago
  Can you tell if there's a concerted effort to flag Musk and DOGE related threads? I've seen threads go from nothing to [flagged][dead] in the course of 30 seconds after being up for 40 minutes, suggesting very spiky flagging behavior. This has come up a few times recently, for example: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42904148 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42904148 (Of course, I could just be misunderstanding how flagging works on the site... maybe the state machine has to transition in order from regular -> [flagged][dead] -> [flagged] after vouching?)
  - dang 2y ago
    I haven't looked specifically at DOGE stories but from my general perspective, this is the same as what we see with all the hottest/most divisive topics—that is, it's the same with Musk in general, Trump in general, and Israel/Gaza, to name perhaps the 3 most in-that-category topics.
- m2024 2y ago
  [dead]

justin66 2y ago

If you use the vouch feature much, eventually they take it away from you. Same with upvoting and downvoting, but it all happens silently so most people don't notice.

relaxing 2y ago
That’s funny, I thought at one point I saw vouch link for comments, but no longer. I doubt I used it more than once. Does that mean it got taken away?
- justin66 2y ago
  I couldn't say for sure but... I think so? It's the same for me, I used to have it and now I don't.
  - dang 2y ago
    In your case that was true. General explanation here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42902318 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42902318. I didn't see much misuse of vouching in your recent history so I've removed that penalty from your account now. But please make sure that the comments you're vouching for are respecting the site guidelines (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).
    - zfg 2y ago
      Why don't you make such things transparent and clear on a user's account so they can see what you've done? You're keen on reviewing a user's recent history, but provide no corresponding transparency to the user on what you've done.
      - dang 2y ago
        Because I'm scared of how much extra work it would create, and because it's the sort of frog-boiling bureaucratism that it is in the spirit of this site to avoid. It's easy for me to imagine that one day I would wake up and be horrified by the systems we had inadvertently let sprout up around ourselves. HN works best with informal systems, not formal ones. The informal contract around transparency is: people are welcome to ask questions and we always answer them, but we don't formally publish a moderation log or anything like that (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20moderation%20log&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...).

minimaxir 2y ago

If a post is flagged-but-you-can-still-comment, then it can't be vouched. If a post is flagkilled w/ comments disabled, then you can typically vouch.

dredmorbius 2y ago

It's possible to vouch for stories and comments. You can also email moderators at hn@ycombintor.com to request unflagging. I do that occasionally, with mixed results. (I've come to know which are long shots, and typically concede the point, but at least make the attempt.)

dredmorbius 2y ago
Correction: vouch only works on comments. For stories, email mods as discussed elsewhere and in both the HN FAQ & Guidelines: FAQ: <https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html> Guidelines: <https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html> Both are linked at the bottom of most HN pages.