5 ms·

Posts that aren't negative about Microsoft are routinely flagged off the front page.

dredmorbius 14y ago
It's more an observation that HN is highly skewed toward consumer Internet companies. And doesn't focus much on specific companies generally (Google, Apple, Twitter, and Facebook/Zuckerberg excepted).
scott_s 14y ago
How did you come to that conclusion? That is, how are you able to differentiate a story naturally being bumped off the front page by other stories getting more aggressive upvotes, and a story being buried by many flags?
- cooldeal 14y ago
  If a story has 50 votes and was posted 5 hours ago, it should be ranked higher than any story that has less than 50 points and was posted more than 5 hours ago. If not, it shows that the story was flagged. Example: http://i.imgur.com/IlAn2.jpg http://i.imgur.com/IlAn2.jpg Another example: http://i.imgur.com/fSJqq.png http://i.imgur.com/fSJqq.png Also, Paul Thurott's http://winsupersite.com http://winsupersite.com is completely banned from HN, most probably due to excessively being flagged for the crime of being a Microsoft watcher news site.
  - scott_s 14y ago
    I don't think the ranking algorithm is that simple - I think it takes into account recency of votes, although I'm not sure. The first example does not seem suspicious to me, although the second one is surprising to me.
    - cooldeal 14y ago
      The ranking algorithm is that simple. http://amix.dk/blog/post/19574 http://amix.dk/blog/post/19574 Watch articles that are critical of Apple or Google, or those are not critical of Microsoft, most of the time they get flagged down by overzealous fans. Edit: Happening right now to this very article :)
      - scott_s 14y ago
        I recall Paul saying on HN that he tweaks with HN's algorithm, and those changes are not represented in what's posted on arclanguage.org. In fact, he says it in response to that writeup: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1781417 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1781417 There's also the voting ring detector, which is not distributed.

It's more an observation that HN is highly skewed toward consumer Internet companies. And doesn't focus much on specific companies generally (Google, Apple, Twitter, and Facebook/Zuckerberg excepted).

scott_s 14y ago

How did you come to that conclusion? That is, how are you able to differentiate a story naturally being bumped off the front page by other stories getting more aggressive upvotes, and a story being buried by many flags?

cooldeal 14y ago
If a story has 50 votes and was posted 5 hours ago, it should be ranked higher than any story that has less than 50 points and was posted more than 5 hours ago. If not, it shows that the story was flagged. Example: http://i.imgur.com/IlAn2.jpg http://i.imgur.com/IlAn2.jpg Another example: http://i.imgur.com/fSJqq.png http://i.imgur.com/fSJqq.png Also, Paul Thurott's http://winsupersite.com http://winsupersite.com is completely banned from HN, most probably due to excessively being flagged for the crime of being a Microsoft watcher news site.
- scott_s 14y ago
  I don't think the ranking algorithm is that simple - I think it takes into account recency of votes, although I'm not sure. The first example does not seem suspicious to me, although the second one is surprising to me.
  - cooldeal 14y ago
    The ranking algorithm is that simple. http://amix.dk/blog/post/19574 http://amix.dk/blog/post/19574 Watch articles that are critical of Apple or Google, or those are not critical of Microsoft, most of the time they get flagged down by overzealous fans. Edit: Happening right now to this very article :)
    - scott_s 14y ago
      I recall Paul saying on HN that he tweaks with HN's algorithm, and those changes are not represented in what's posted on arclanguage.org. In fact, he says it in response to that writeup: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1781417 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1781417 There's also the voting ring detector, which is not distributed.