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Because enough people clicked the flag link. If enough of them click the flag link on this one, it'll get flagged too! Flagging is there for stuff that's off-t

by tom_ 1y ago

Because enough people clicked the flag link. If enough of them click the flag link on this one, it'll get flagged too! Flagging is there for stuff that's off-topic or generating low-quality discussion in the views of the people clicking the flag link. Sometimes the admins will step in to unflag the article if it looks like neither of these apply, and/or if it would be helpful to have a containment topic for discussion of a particularly popular contentious topic.

BugsJustFindMe 1y ago
> Because enough people clicked the flag link. Tautology isn't a useful reply to this question. At best it's a distraction, and at worst deflection. That people clicked the flagged link is already apparent by virtue of the post having been marked as flagged. That doesn't engage with why it was flagged.
- tom_ 1y ago
  I disagree, but maybe if I elaborate (as perhaps I should have done) it'll be clearer. The comment was intended to make two points: 0. the link was clicked by users of the site. The admins claim not to have any influence; I'm sure they do (if they want), but they seem to often enough rescue discussions from the flagged set that we can assume the readership exercises significant influence and there's no shadowy cabal generally trying to suppress wrongthink, as some seem to suppose. (Of course, perhaps there are a lot of people in the readership that are, and maybe they collude, but that is true for everything, and a far less interesting point) 1. if you want to know why the article was flagged, you will have to individually ask the people that flagged it. Sure, if you post the question here, it stands a non-zero chance of attracting the odd comment from these people, but it's quite obviously an inefficient way of finding out. What better ways are there? Well... none, really. But that means the answer is essentially unknowable, and the question barely worth asking. So with the question barely worth asking - why ask it? It's just a sure-fire way to attract low-quality speculation, that will almost certainly blame it on: well, take your pick! - in some unproductive fashion, probably engendering some ongoing predictable discussion about the current bugbears of cranks of whatever stripe end up joining in. (Or, suppose the question is posed by somebody unsure how the flag mechanism works: I think my reply actually does cover this case well enough.)

by tom_ 1y ago

BugsJustFindMe 1y ago

> Because enough people clicked the flag link. Tautology isn't a useful reply to this question. At best it's a distraction, and at worst deflection. That people clicked the flagged link is already apparent by virtue of the post having been marked as flagged. That doesn't engage with why it was flagged.

tom_ 1y ago
I disagree, but maybe if I elaborate (as perhaps I should have done) it'll be clearer. The comment was intended to make two points: 0. the link was clicked by users of the site. The admins claim not to have any influence; I'm sure they do (if they want), but they seem to often enough rescue discussions from the flagged set that we can assume the readership exercises significant influence and there's no shadowy cabal generally trying to suppress wrongthink, as some seem to suppose. (Of course, perhaps there are a lot of people in the readership that are, and maybe they collude, but that is true for everything, and a far less interesting point) 1. if you want to know why the article was flagged, you will have to individually ask the people that flagged it. Sure, if you post the question here, it stands a non-zero chance of attracting the odd comment from these people, but it's quite obviously an inefficient way of finding out. What better ways are there? Well... none, really. But that means the answer is essentially unknowable, and the question barely worth asking. So with the question barely worth asking - why ask it? It's just a sure-fire way to attract low-quality speculation, that will almost certainly blame it on: well, take your pick! - in some unproductive fashion, probably engendering some ongoing predictable discussion about the current bugbears of cranks of whatever stripe end up joining in. (Or, suppose the question is posed by somebody unsure how the flag mechanism works: I think my reply actually does cover this case well enough.)