4 ms·

Pretty much all nazi salute submissions got flagged.

rl3 2y ago
Not just those; anything "political" has a very high chance of being flagged lately. I was sad to see these flagged: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42874542 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42874542 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911535 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911535 Respectively: https://www.npr.org/2025/01/29/nx-s1-5279386/hegseth-milley-security-detail https://www.npr.org/2025/01/29/nx-s1-5279386/hegseth-milley-... https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.htm https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.htm The latter is an excellent text and would normally be encouraged under HN guidelines. I just figure the poor mods here don't want to spend their entire waking lives moderating the inevitable flame wars that result, rather than some overt bad faith censorship regime. That or it's users doing it. The discussions have been pretty decent for the political topics that have been let through.
- dang 2y ago
  The first of those (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42874542 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42874542) seems to me too topical, i.e. too much about one specific event / specific persons and not enough of intellectual interest. The second (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911535 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911535), I agree with you is interesting, and you're right that it would normally be encouraged. The question is whether it's a good submission in this moment. It was obviously submitted in the spirit of ideological battle and I think that is how it would be received by the community; this is probably one of the worst possible times for that particular article to appear. One little-understood weirdness of a site like HN is that an article can be good without being good now. I wrote a long thing about this recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42787306 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42787306, in case anyone is curious. As for how we decide which threads to "let through", I wrote about this at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42922234 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42922234 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911011 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911011 (including a later reply). If anyone reads those and still has a question that isn't answered there, I'd be happy to take a crack at it. p.s. Thanks for imputing good faith to the mods! Edit: the second article you mentioned did end up getting a big frontpage thread: They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 (1955) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42943973 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42943973 - Feb 2025 (403 comments) pp.s. When there are submissions you think are particularly good, and that particularly should not be flagged, you can always email the link to hn@ycombinator.com. We're happy to take a look, and many times we've turned off flags as a result of such an email.
  - rl3 2y ago
    Apologies, just saw this days later. I appreciate the in-depth explanations. Glad to see the second article did end up getting traction eventually. >p.s. Thanks for imputing good faith to the mods! My pleasure. Thanks for all your hard work!

rl3 2y ago

Not just those; anything "political" has a very high chance of being flagged lately. I was sad to see these flagged: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42874542 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42874542 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911535 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911535 Respectively: https://www.npr.org/2025/01/29/nx-s1-5279386/hegseth-milley-security-detail https://www.npr.org/2025/01/29/nx-s1-5279386/hegseth-milley-... https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.htm https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.htm The latter is an excellent text and would normally be encouraged under HN guidelines. I just figure the poor mods here don't want to spend their entire waking lives moderating the inevitable flame wars that result, rather than some overt bad faith censorship regime. That or it's users doing it. The discussions have been pretty decent for the political topics that have been let through.

dang 2y ago
The first of those (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42874542 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42874542) seems to me too topical, i.e. too much about one specific event / specific persons and not enough of intellectual interest. The second (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911535 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911535), I agree with you is interesting, and you're right that it would normally be encouraged. The question is whether it's a good submission in this moment. It was obviously submitted in the spirit of ideological battle and I think that is how it would be received by the community; this is probably one of the worst possible times for that particular article to appear. One little-understood weirdness of a site like HN is that an article can be good without being good now. I wrote a long thing about this recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42787306 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42787306, in case anyone is curious. As for how we decide which threads to "let through", I wrote about this at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42922234 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42922234 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911011 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911011 (including a later reply). If anyone reads those and still has a question that isn't answered there, I'd be happy to take a crack at it. p.s. Thanks for imputing good faith to the mods! Edit: the second article you mentioned did end up getting a big frontpage thread: They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45 (1955) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42943973 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42943973 - Feb 2025 (403 comments) pp.s. When there are submissions you think are particularly good, and that particularly should not be flagged, you can always email the link to hn@ycombinator.com. We're happy to take a look, and many times we've turned off flags as a result of such an email.
- rl3 2y ago
  Apologies, just saw this days later. I appreciate the in-depth explanations. Glad to see the second article did end up getting traction eventually. >p.s. Thanks for imputing good faith to the mods! My pleasure. Thanks for all your hard work!