3 ms·

why flagged? What causes flaggage on a topic like this? I suppose the implicit reasons are many, but suspicion it's organised (or self organising) opposition to

by ggm 2y ago

why flagged? What causes flaggage on a topic like this? I suppose the implicit reasons are many, but suspicion it's organised (or self organising) opposition to talking about "boring" things on HN.

erentz 2y ago
I have noticed anything related to Elon Musk, DOGE, and Trump is flagged or very quickly I check back and it has somehow wound up several pages downranked no matter how recent or how many upvotes it was getting. Even articles that are tech in nature like the access to Treasury payments or the stories about the people working for him. I’ve seen the HN mod go out of his way to unflag actual conspiracy theories and yet here we are where real significant news can’t be discussed because of the people involved.
- ggm 2y ago
  I'm 50/50 on this one. I clicked so I can't deny interest. But, at some level there are plenty of spaces to talk about the politics, and damn few which have the focus on the tech aspects. If the discussion was solidly on IPR, cross border data, comms, IT services, I could see it here. I do think that a cohort of people who probably always felt more aligned to the ethos behind Musk/Theil/Bezos and who resented being "shamed out" might be more willing to show their point of view now. The quickest path for them would be a mixture of tart comment contradicting my view, and flagging top levels (or comments) to get out of the problem quickly. It's ironic perhaps, that the best path for a libertarian is to chill speech, but its quick and effective. (yes, thats probably insulting somebody)
  - soupfordummies 2y ago
    I see the "tech not politics" argument on all these insta-flagged posts. I think that the site has evolved from that though. There may be plenty of spaces to talk about politics but I don't know of too many other spaces around the 'net with such a bar of intelligent, informed and articulate folks like this one. I think people gravitate here to see what others have to say that isn't just a name-calling cess pool of ignorance like most of the rest of the net
    - erentz 2y ago
      For me there is the distinction between regular politics and politics that is influenced or touched by technology and its leaders. Regular politics can be discussed elsewhere, that makes sense. But stories involving technology in the government should have a place here, even when the people involved are the likes of Elon Musk. And stories involving tech leaders acting in our government should have a place for discussion here too. But of course what’s happening is deeply destructive and unpopular, so some people who support that agenda want to keep it quiet. Frankly people will hate us forever after this.
foogazi 2y ago
The usual excuse is politics, but trade seems to be way more and directly relevant to business
porcoda 2y ago
A surprisingly large number of people here are sensitive when articles or opinions don’t agree with them. The flag and downvote are their usual weapons of choice. It’s odd to blow off “politics” that impact trade and business on a site crawling with people who, you know, want to get rich in trade and business.
- ggm 2y ago
  I'd far rather get into a conversation. What tends to happen is a lot of ad hom and probably I'm as guilty as the next person. I do think that there are some key coding labels used by "one side" to refer to "the other side" -on my side we tend to reach to the F word (not F#, nor FP this time) a lot. On the other, the W word and Social Justice Warrior comes up a lot. The last person I had a cogent discussion about this stuff with was interesting. This is years ago, before the first Trump presidency. Very strongly aligned to organized religion (Catholic) having come out of a wierd pentecostal movement and lost contact with family. Very much "destroy the joint" and so backing Trump, yet hated Vance with a vengeance as "not really from west virginia and a scumbag" -I wonder what he makes of things now? So many contradictory pressures! Nice guy. I like talking to people even when I don't agree. I tend to flag stories which bore me (which may be bad behaviour) or which look to be seeking to monetize from low effort deliverable. It would have to be an utterly repellant top level line of reasoning for me to want to flag it. Something arguing for CSAM or Race theory. I avoid the trans debates like the plague, and CoC discussions tend to be there these days but I wouldn't flag one just because its about a CoC issue.
  - walterbell 2y ago
    Organized flagging by competing groups on HN will continue until someone publishes a data analysis not only proving the organization, but reverse engineering and naming the cliques via graph analysis. There is signal within HN-flagged articles, for an enterprising LLM.
2-3-7-43-1807 2y ago
maybe cause this is site is about technology and not politics?
- lnkl 2y ago
  Seems its "not politics" when the topic is inconvenient.
  - 2-3-7-43-1807 2y ago
    true ... afaiac it should be auto-flagged always. politics and also other stuff that belongs on reddit. i do like reddit, but i do like also that hn isn't like reddit. at least not yet. but it seems headed there.

by ggm 2y ago

why flagged? What causes flaggage on a topic like this? I suppose the implicit reasons are many, but suspicion it's organised (or self organising) opposition to talking about "boring" things on HN.

erentz 2y ago

I have noticed anything related to Elon Musk, DOGE, and Trump is flagged or very quickly I check back and it has somehow wound up several pages downranked no matter how recent or how many upvotes it was getting. Even articles that are tech in nature like the access to Treasury payments or the stories about the people working for him. I’ve seen the HN mod go out of his way to unflag actual conspiracy theories and yet here we are where real significant news can’t be discussed because of the people involved.

ggm 2y ago
I'm 50/50 on this one. I clicked so I can't deny interest. But, at some level there are plenty of spaces to talk about the politics, and damn few which have the focus on the tech aspects. If the discussion was solidly on IPR, cross border data, comms, IT services, I could see it here. I do think that a cohort of people who probably always felt more aligned to the ethos behind Musk/Theil/Bezos and who resented being "shamed out" might be more willing to show their point of view now. The quickest path for them would be a mixture of tart comment contradicting my view, and flagging top levels (or comments) to get out of the problem quickly. It's ironic perhaps, that the best path for a libertarian is to chill speech, but its quick and effective. (yes, thats probably insulting somebody)
- soupfordummies 2y ago
  I see the "tech not politics" argument on all these insta-flagged posts. I think that the site has evolved from that though. There may be plenty of spaces to talk about politics but I don't know of too many other spaces around the 'net with such a bar of intelligent, informed and articulate folks like this one. I think people gravitate here to see what others have to say that isn't just a name-calling cess pool of ignorance like most of the rest of the net
  - erentz 2y ago
    For me there is the distinction between regular politics and politics that is influenced or touched by technology and its leaders. Regular politics can be discussed elsewhere, that makes sense. But stories involving technology in the government should have a place here, even when the people involved are the likes of Elon Musk. And stories involving tech leaders acting in our government should have a place for discussion here too. But of course what’s happening is deeply destructive and unpopular, so some people who support that agenda want to keep it quiet. Frankly people will hate us forever after this.

foogazi 2y ago

The usual excuse is politics, but trade seems to be way more and directly relevant to business

porcoda 2y ago

A surprisingly large number of people here are sensitive when articles or opinions don’t agree with them. The flag and downvote are their usual weapons of choice. It’s odd to blow off “politics” that impact trade and business on a site crawling with people who, you know, want to get rich in trade and business.

ggm 2y ago
I'd far rather get into a conversation. What tends to happen is a lot of ad hom and probably I'm as guilty as the next person. I do think that there are some key coding labels used by "one side" to refer to "the other side" -on my side we tend to reach to the F word (not F#, nor FP this time) a lot. On the other, the W word and Social Justice Warrior comes up a lot. The last person I had a cogent discussion about this stuff with was interesting. This is years ago, before the first Trump presidency. Very strongly aligned to organized religion (Catholic) having come out of a wierd pentecostal movement and lost contact with family. Very much "destroy the joint" and so backing Trump, yet hated Vance with a vengeance as "not really from west virginia and a scumbag" -I wonder what he makes of things now? So many contradictory pressures! Nice guy. I like talking to people even when I don't agree. I tend to flag stories which bore me (which may be bad behaviour) or which look to be seeking to monetize from low effort deliverable. It would have to be an utterly repellant top level line of reasoning for me to want to flag it. Something arguing for CSAM or Race theory. I avoid the trans debates like the plague, and CoC discussions tend to be there these days but I wouldn't flag one just because its about a CoC issue.
- walterbell 2y ago
  Organized flagging by competing groups on HN will continue until someone publishes a data analysis not only proving the organization, but reverse engineering and naming the cliques via graph analysis. There is signal within HN-flagged articles, for an enterprising LLM.

2-3-7-43-1807 2y ago

maybe cause this is site is about technology and not politics?

lnkl 2y ago
Seems its "not politics" when the topic is inconvenient.
- 2-3-7-43-1807 2y ago
  true ... afaiac it should be auto-flagged always. politics and also other stuff that belongs on reddit. i do like reddit, but i do like also that hn isn't like reddit. at least not yet. but it seems headed there.