4 ms·

So I just found this a few pages down at rank 129, where its ended up in only 3 hours, despite garnering 250 points in that time. That's abnormal for such a pop

by erentz 2y ago

So I just found this a few pages down at rank 129, where its ended up in only 3 hours, despite garnering 250 points in that time. That's abnormal for such a popular post. What gives?

EasyMark 2y ago
Probably marked as "political" and demoted
- shinryuu 2y ago
  People flagged it. Seems like it got moderated and is now unflagged.
- prawn 2y ago
  I don't think HN wants to be the place for these sorts of stories, however important they might ultimately feel.
  - mrguyorama 2y ago
    Frankly because a lot of people here on HN buy the new regime's claims fully, and refuse to take a skeptical look at what is happening. They don't want political news on here because they have chosen to get political news only from a few select/deified "truth" channels and anything else is a lie. They don't want their carefully curated filter bubble to be threatened. I was here when HN tried "no politics" and clearly demonstrated how stupid and foolish that is even as a concept. You don't get to play "I just want to talk tech and be apolitical" when those titans of "tech" are swearing fealty to the regime and choosing to lose slam dunk cases as a means of bribing the president.
astroid 2y ago
It's probably because absolutely no one is using real sources in these articles. I won't muddy the comments repeating myself - but I have been fascinated by how quickly people latched on to this, have been absolutely incapable of finding any first party sourcing, and asked CoPilot to analyze each of these stories (13 so far!) and every single one is 'trust me bro, I heard it in a convo'. I really really hope this isn't true for all the same reasons as people are freaking out... but at this point it has as much merit as saying "the sky is always green, I heard a guy say it the other week who I won't name but it's true" Ctrl-F 'astroid' or click my last post in this thread for the complete breakdown of every source referenced, and ask yourself if there is enough info to warrant entertaining this fantasy. Honestly I am shocked at how little critical thinking is being applied here. I know this website hates these guys, but there is usually a facade of critical thinking at the least.
- stubish 2y ago
  It is annoying that the more inflammatory and 'breaking news(?)' articles are what remain. All of the articles from reputable news sources citing their sources this last weekend got flagged in minutes. I think only the Wired article that outed the people involved in the federal payments system takeover managed to get unflagged (again, inflammatory).
  - astroid 2y ago
    Honestly the wired one should have gotten flagged too - it's as unsourced as the other 12: "Wired: Reports that Marko Elez, a 25-year-old engineer linked to Elon Musk, has direct access to Treasury Department systems responsible for nearly all payments made by the U.S. government. The sources are unnamed, and they claim Elez has administrator-level privileges, including the ability to write code on the Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System." It's an endless circle. No one is willing to stand behind the reporting, no one is willing to go on record. I almost regret wasting as much time trying to get to the bottom of the story because I feel stupid for trying to peel back on these layers and finding nothing -- like they were trying to take people on a ride and I fell for it. I guess it could be worse though - I could have just taken them all at face value. Even the 'anonymous sources' appear to be second or third party on TOP of being anonymous. EDIT: To clarify, if you were referring to https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-associate-bfs-federal-payment-system/ https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-associate-bfs-federal-... that is the one with no real sources. If you meant another source about the audit in general I shouldn't have assumed -- it's just in the list of the 13 I have reviewed with no substance.
    - stubish 2y ago
      Yes, and I've generally not considered Wired a reputable news source in any case. If you are interested in names, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/02/elon-musk-doge-access-federal-payment-system https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/02/elon-musk... is one article (flagged several times here) citing "Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator from Oregon and the ranking member of the Senate finance committee", and contains links to several other posts from alternative news organizations that may also be helpful. (Politics? Interesting that The Guardian files this under Technology)
stubish 2y ago
Rather than rely on upvotes to organically populate the front pages with content users are interested in, there are a number of users censoring the site by flagging content they personally don't want to see. Lots of political stuff gets censored in minutes, and absolutely everything critical of Elon Musk. Nothing about Musk in particular lasted on the front page from this last weekend, despite the high profile actions. Lots of 'don't make me tap the sign' comments pointing to the guidelines, but flagging is just going to be weaponized like this unless its use is better defined and enforced somehow. Even the discussion on the bot-like flaggings got flagged. And it is all counter productive, because if users want to discuss a topic they are going to end up doing it in inappropriate places when the appropriate places have been taken down. Like we are here.
tim333 2y ago
I nearly always use the algolia thing for top stories of the last 24 hours. It isn't affected by flagging, mods and the like https://hn.algolia.com/?q=&query=&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=last24h&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?q=&query=&sort=byPopularity&prefix&p...

by erentz 2y ago

So I just found this a few pages down at rank 129, where its ended up in only 3 hours, despite garnering 250 points in that time. That's abnormal for such a popular post. What gives?

EasyMark 2y ago

Probably marked as "political" and demoted

shinryuu 2y ago
People flagged it. Seems like it got moderated and is now unflagged.
prawn 2y ago
I don't think HN wants to be the place for these sorts of stories, however important they might ultimately feel.
- mrguyorama 2y ago
  Frankly because a lot of people here on HN buy the new regime's claims fully, and refuse to take a skeptical look at what is happening. They don't want political news on here because they have chosen to get political news only from a few select/deified "truth" channels and anything else is a lie. They don't want their carefully curated filter bubble to be threatened. I was here when HN tried "no politics" and clearly demonstrated how stupid and foolish that is even as a concept. You don't get to play "I just want to talk tech and be apolitical" when those titans of "tech" are swearing fealty to the regime and choosing to lose slam dunk cases as a means of bribing the president.

astroid 2y ago

It's probably because absolutely no one is using real sources in these articles. I won't muddy the comments repeating myself - but I have been fascinated by how quickly people latched on to this, have been absolutely incapable of finding any first party sourcing, and asked CoPilot to analyze each of these stories (13 so far!) and every single one is 'trust me bro, I heard it in a convo'. I really really hope this isn't true for all the same reasons as people are freaking out... but at this point it has as much merit as saying "the sky is always green, I heard a guy say it the other week who I won't name but it's true" Ctrl-F 'astroid' or click my last post in this thread for the complete breakdown of every source referenced, and ask yourself if there is enough info to warrant entertaining this fantasy. Honestly I am shocked at how little critical thinking is being applied here. I know this website hates these guys, but there is usually a facade of critical thinking at the least.

stubish 2y ago
It is annoying that the more inflammatory and 'breaking news(?)' articles are what remain. All of the articles from reputable news sources citing their sources this last weekend got flagged in minutes. I think only the Wired article that outed the people involved in the federal payments system takeover managed to get unflagged (again, inflammatory).
- astroid 2y ago
  Honestly the wired one should have gotten flagged too - it's as unsourced as the other 12: "Wired: Reports that Marko Elez, a 25-year-old engineer linked to Elon Musk, has direct access to Treasury Department systems responsible for nearly all payments made by the U.S. government. The sources are unnamed, and they claim Elez has administrator-level privileges, including the ability to write code on the Payment Automation Manager and Secure Payment System." It's an endless circle. No one is willing to stand behind the reporting, no one is willing to go on record. I almost regret wasting as much time trying to get to the bottom of the story because I feel stupid for trying to peel back on these layers and finding nothing -- like they were trying to take people on a ride and I fell for it. I guess it could be worse though - I could have just taken them all at face value. Even the 'anonymous sources' appear to be second or third party on TOP of being anonymous. EDIT: To clarify, if you were referring to https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-associate-bfs-federal-payment-system/ https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-associate-bfs-federal-... that is the one with no real sources. If you meant another source about the audit in general I shouldn't have assumed -- it's just in the list of the 13 I have reviewed with no substance.
  - stubish 2y ago
    Yes, and I've generally not considered Wired a reputable news source in any case. If you are interested in names, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/02/elon-musk-doge-access-federal-payment-system https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/feb/02/elon-musk... is one article (flagged several times here) citing "Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator from Oregon and the ranking member of the Senate finance committee", and contains links to several other posts from alternative news organizations that may also be helpful. (Politics? Interesting that The Guardian files this under Technology)

stubish 2y ago

Rather than rely on upvotes to organically populate the front pages with content users are interested in, there are a number of users censoring the site by flagging content they personally don't want to see. Lots of political stuff gets censored in minutes, and absolutely everything critical of Elon Musk. Nothing about Musk in particular lasted on the front page from this last weekend, despite the high profile actions. Lots of 'don't make me tap the sign' comments pointing to the guidelines, but flagging is just going to be weaponized like this unless its use is better defined and enforced somehow. Even the discussion on the bot-like flaggings got flagged. And it is all counter productive, because if users want to discuss a topic they are going to end up doing it in inappropriate places when the appropriate places have been taken down. Like we are here.

tim333 2y ago

I nearly always use the algolia thing for top stories of the last 24 hours. It isn't affected by flagging, mods and the like https://hn.algolia.com/?q=&query=&sort=byPopularity&prefix&page=0&dateRange=last24h&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?q=&query=&sort=byPopularity&prefix&p...