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Ask HN: Does Hacker News pull posts about Greenland from the front page?

26 points by subjektivation 9mo ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46669025 This post was on the front-page for about 1-2 hours before disappearing from it. It had gained about 300 points in that time which is way more than most posts on hacker news that stay on the front-page for 1-2 days. Even if you go to page 2 or 3, 4 or 5, this post cannot be found! This seems strange. Does YCombinator have any interest in this?

zqna 9mo ago
Yes, the engineers should not be discussing the purpose of the tools they are making. That makes the process much more efficient
SilverElfin 9mo ago
Weird that the story you linked disappeared, and I definitely would expect that post to stay around as you mentioned. I have noticed a lot of aggressive flagging of political stories, which is frustrating given that the political landscape right now is extremely volatile and has big implications for everyone and everything. All the typical tech stuff is less interesting at this time. As for YCombinator - not sure about them specifically but lots of tech billionaires are for invading Greenland or at least coercing them. Joe Lonsdale (Palantir co founder) recently said in an interview that he views it as frontier land (rather than someone else’s sovereign state). Probably the rare earth minerals would help investors involved in chips or AI.
- N_Lens 9mo ago
  Proof that you don't need wisdom to be a billionaire - the rich would benefit much more from stable societies and stable global order, rather than willingly rolling the world into an era of chaos.
  - 7bit 9mo ago
    Covid and Trump pretty much showed that this is not true. Chaos helps the rich more than stability (what we had before)
    - nephihaha 9mo ago
      Lockdown rather than Covid. Covid was supposedly around for six months (or more) before all that began.
utopiah 9mo ago
People there wondering too https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46670811 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46670811
johncoltrane 9mo ago
I like HN when it is leans toward "a place for everyone to talk about tech". Not so much when it derails into "a place for technologists to talk about anything".
- BoredPositron 9mo ago
  It's the russia in the 90s timeline. "I don't care about politics." if it's not aligned with the politics I like.
  - nephihaha 9mo ago
    More like the American timeline i.e. "that's the other party I don't like." There is this continual suspicion that if you criticise one lot you must support the other, as if there are only two shows in town.
  - armchairhacker 9mo ago
    What's there to discuss about this? Who will it convince that the 1000 other things Trump has said and done hasn't? This isn't even more outrageous than other things Trump has said. It would be if he actually invades, but he won't...
- 7bit 9mo ago
  I agree. But when moderation is lenient and everything is allowed, you can't randomly decide to pull the plug on specific topics within a genre that's allowed.
  - tardibear 9mo ago
    I don't know whether these stories are pulled by HN moderators or flagged by lots of users but there is more than one motive for pulling/flagging stories. One motive might be to avoid unproductive discussions - many of the comment threads on the Greenland story (which I voted up) were angry and very polarised.
- subjektivation 9mo ago
throwawaysleep 9mo ago
> Does YCombinator have any interest in this? https://x.com/garrytan https://x.com/garrytan
beardyw 9mo ago
I get the impression that the front page algorithm likes upvotes but dislikes comments. Not sure if anyone knows?
deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]
1659447091 9mo ago
It can be found on the 'active' page https://news.ycombinator.com/active https://news.ycombinator.com/active The link to that page plus others can be found in the 'Lists' link in the footer https://news.ycombinator.com/lists https://news.ycombinator.com/lists
- red-iron-pine 9mo ago
  /active is really the only way to do HN. there are occasionally gems in /new but there is a lot of signal-to-noise issues
thinkingemote 9mo ago
Points vs comments. If there's lots of points on a story but only a few comments, it won't stick around. Or maybe its the other way around? (see below) There is an automated flame detection mechanism. Don't know how it works. probably some kind of count of downvoting of comments? Users manually flag. Most political stories are flame bait; the discussions are low quality. Most politics is off topic, but if a story has been discussed and this one has for almost a year, posting more about the same story with little change won't add much to the conversation. E.g. I commented about this story 10 (ten!) months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43212206 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43212206 and do not feel the need to share my thoughts each and every time the story comes up again, although I did 5 months ago. Maybe in 5 months time I will do so again but not every day! Users do not want to see the same story permanently on show for discussion - they want novelty. Users tend to not like: Emotions. Propaganda. Accusations of conspiracy. Less thoughtful and more thought terminating comments. ---- You can find better and more answers by the site moderator @dang on why things slip off the front page by using the search box at the bottom of the page.
- subjektivation 9mo ago
  Thank you! That cleared it up for me
comfysocks 9mo ago
It’s easy enough to avoid clicking on articles containing “Greenland”, “ICE”, etc. if you don’t want to talk about those things. Is it also necessary to make sure that none of your fellow nerds talk about those things either? I consider tech workers to be “my tribe” and am curious to know what others think about what’s happening in the world around us.

zqna 9mo ago

Yes, the engineers should not be discussing the purpose of the tools they are making. That makes the process much more efficient

SilverElfin 9mo ago

Weird that the story you linked disappeared, and I definitely would expect that post to stay around as you mentioned. I have noticed a lot of aggressive flagging of political stories, which is frustrating given that the political landscape right now is extremely volatile and has big implications for everyone and everything. All the typical tech stuff is less interesting at this time. As for YCombinator - not sure about them specifically but lots of tech billionaires are for invading Greenland or at least coercing them. Joe Lonsdale (Palantir co founder) recently said in an interview that he views it as frontier land (rather than someone else’s sovereign state). Probably the rare earth minerals would help investors involved in chips or AI.

N_Lens 9mo ago
Proof that you don't need wisdom to be a billionaire - the rich would benefit much more from stable societies and stable global order, rather than willingly rolling the world into an era of chaos.
- 7bit 9mo ago
  Covid and Trump pretty much showed that this is not true. Chaos helps the rich more than stability (what we had before)
  - nephihaha 9mo ago
    Lockdown rather than Covid. Covid was supposedly around for six months (or more) before all that began.

utopiah 9mo ago

People there wondering too https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46670811 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46670811

johncoltrane 9mo ago

I like HN when it is leans toward "a place for everyone to talk about tech". Not so much when it derails into "a place for technologists to talk about anything".

BoredPositron 9mo ago
It's the russia in the 90s timeline. "I don't care about politics." if it's not aligned with the politics I like.
- nephihaha 9mo ago
  More like the American timeline i.e. "that's the other party I don't like." There is this continual suspicion that if you criticise one lot you must support the other, as if there are only two shows in town.
- armchairhacker 9mo ago
  What's there to discuss about this? Who will it convince that the 1000 other things Trump has said and done hasn't? This isn't even more outrageous than other things Trump has said. It would be if he actually invades, but he won't...
7bit 9mo ago
I agree. But when moderation is lenient and everything is allowed, you can't randomly decide to pull the plug on specific topics within a genre that's allowed.
- tardibear 9mo ago
  I don't know whether these stories are pulled by HN moderators or flagged by lots of users but there is more than one motive for pulling/flagging stories. One motive might be to avoid unproductive discussions - many of the comment threads on the Greenland story (which I voted up) were angry and very polarised.
subjektivation 9mo ago

throwawaysleep 9mo ago

> Does YCombinator have any interest in this? https://x.com/garrytan https://x.com/garrytan

beardyw 9mo ago

I get the impression that the front page algorithm likes upvotes but dislikes comments. Not sure if anyone knows?

deleted 9mo ago

[deleted]

1659447091 9mo ago

It can be found on the 'active' page https://news.ycombinator.com/active https://news.ycombinator.com/active The link to that page plus others can be found in the 'Lists' link in the footer https://news.ycombinator.com/lists https://news.ycombinator.com/lists

red-iron-pine 9mo ago
/active is really the only way to do HN. there are occasionally gems in /new but there is a lot of signal-to-noise issues

thinkingemote 9mo ago

Points vs comments. If there's lots of points on a story but only a few comments, it won't stick around. Or maybe its the other way around? (see below) There is an automated flame detection mechanism. Don't know how it works. probably some kind of count of downvoting of comments? Users manually flag. Most political stories are flame bait; the discussions are low quality. Most politics is off topic, but if a story has been discussed and this one has for almost a year, posting more about the same story with little change won't add much to the conversation. E.g. I commented about this story 10 (ten!) months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43212206 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43212206 and do not feel the need to share my thoughts each and every time the story comes up again, although I did 5 months ago. Maybe in 5 months time I will do so again but not every day! Users do not want to see the same story permanently on show for discussion - they want novelty. Users tend to not like: Emotions. Propaganda. Accusations of conspiracy. Less thoughtful and more thought terminating comments. ---- You can find better and more answers by the site moderator @dang on why things slip off the front page by using the search box at the bottom of the page.

subjektivation 9mo ago
Thank you! That cleared it up for me

comfysocks 9mo ago

It’s easy enough to avoid clicking on articles containing “Greenland”, “ICE”, etc. if you don’t want to talk about those things. Is it also necessary to make sure that none of your fellow nerds talk about those things either? I consider tech workers to be “my tribe” and am curious to know what others think about what’s happening in the world around us.