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The point is, it seems to only take one person to vehemently object. > complaints aren't justified properly rather than there aren't a sufficient number of the

The point is, it seems to only take one person to vehemently object. > complaints aren't justified properly rather than there aren't a sufficient number of them it's not that they aren't "justified properly", it's that they aren't justified at all. From my submission: "I hate to be that guy who posts this sort of comment. Especially on HN. But still: Someone has to say it. Pointless hipster-TLD is pointless. Utterly pointless." Is it pointless? Tell that to codepen.io, or card.io (who got acquired by Paypal). "But still: Someone has to say it." Did someone have to say it? Saying something is pointless over and over doesn't make it pointless. That seems to be the basis of the argument.

ColinWright 14y ago
If no one agreed with them then theirs would be the only flag and there would be no effect. If several people agreed then there would be several flags, and that's what appears to happen. Largely speaking, and with few exceptions, this is a community moderated forum. Enough of the community decided that the submission wasn't sufficiently on-topic. If you feel strongly that the data you presented is on topic then perhaps you would fare better not simply to post a bare list, but write a blog post about why short names like this are of value to startups, and how having a short domain name can radically improve your chances, and how you wrote a script to create the list, and now you're sharing it because you believe it to be of value. You claim the protester gave no reasons for claiming it's pointless, but equally, you gave no reasons for why it is of value. And just in case I need to say it again, I'm merely providing my analysis of this situation through my model of how the community works. I personally am passing no judgment on how HN works, nor on the community's interests and/or actions.
- mike_tan 14y ago
  >If no one agreed with them then theirs would be the only flag and there would be no effect. If several people agreed then there would be several flags, and that's what appears to happen. Or a moderator. Or something else that's nixing submissions. >If you feel strongly that the data you presented is on topic then perhaps you would fare better not simply to post a bare list, but write a blog post about why short names like this are of value to startups, and how having a short domain name can radically improve your chances, and how you wrote a script to create the list, and now you're sharing it because you believe it to be of value. Actionable data isn't useful? From the comments: "Amazed how many good names are still available. Looking to do a real-estate startup? How about: crib.io (available)" "I was amazed that nag.io was still available. I snatched it!"
  - ColinWright 14y ago
    Let me ask you this: What good is it doing you to argue with me that this submission was of value, and shouldn't've been flagged?
    - mike_tan 14y ago
      I would hope -- but this isn't going to happen, by the looks of it -- that people would see the discussion and then not call out posts as being "pointless" or hype, or like Reddit, or link-bait, just because it's not to their particular liking. There shouldn't be a lexical kill switch for submissions. Or if it's moderators, they should re-think censorship as a reasonable action for posts that may not be to their taste.
      - ColinWright 14y ago
        Let me summarise what I think you're saying: * You saw value in it. * A few others clearly saw value in it. * Still others saw it as having negative value. * The ones who thought it had negative value flagged it. * They should not have done so. * Something should be done. Are you going to suggest what should be done?
        mike_tan 14y ago
        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5685907 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5685907
        mike_tan 14y ago
        "14 hours ago you registered your username 7 hours ago you submitted an item that appears to have been flagged off the front page * 2 hours ago you submit an item about how unfair that is, and how everyone should have instantly realised how valuable your submission was. * Now you complain that your complaint is being flagged. * When I explain about how things work, you just continually come back and say that it shouldn't be like that. Well, that's how it might appear. Welcome to HN." >Well, that's how it might appear. Welcome to HN. This is a dead submission. Censored.
- markokocic 14y ago
  > If no one agreed with them then theirs would be the only flag and there would be no effect. If several people agreed then there would be several flags, and that's what appears to happen. It would be good if users were given not only flag, but also unflag possibility. As it is right now, it takes only a few users to flag an article to disappear, although there might be hundreds users that would be opposed to that that can affect the flagging process because there is no unflag option.
  - ColinWright 14y ago
    There is an unflag option, it's voting that can't be undone, and you can't downvote a submission.
    - markokocic 14y ago
      There is unflag option where you can unflag your own flag, but it doesn't counter other peoples flags, IIRC. I'm not sure about that now, since flag right has been removed from my account some time ago, and I don't see neither flag nor unflag links anymore.
      - ColinWright 14y ago
        Why should you ever be able to undo someone else's flag?
        markokocic 13y ago
        Why would someone else's flag affect my front page?
        ColinWright 13y ago
        I really, really don't understand your question. Consider your front page. It's the same as everyone else's front page. The ranking of the items is a function of how old each item is, how many points it has, how many flags it's got, whether it's trip a filter, etc. Now I flag an item. That penalizes the item and causes its computed value to fall. This in turn may cause its position in the rankings to fall, and thus will affect the front page. But the front page is your front page, and hence my flagging an item can affect "your" front page. How can you think it would be otherwise?

ColinWright 14y ago

If no one agreed with them then theirs would be the only flag and there would be no effect. If several people agreed then there would be several flags, and that's what appears to happen. Largely speaking, and with few exceptions, this is a community moderated forum. Enough of the community decided that the submission wasn't sufficiently on-topic. If you feel strongly that the data you presented is on topic then perhaps you would fare better not simply to post a bare list, but write a blog post about why short names like this are of value to startups, and how having a short domain name can radically improve your chances, and how you wrote a script to create the list, and now you're sharing it because you believe it to be of value. You claim the protester gave no reasons for claiming it's pointless, but equally, you gave no reasons for why it is of value. And just in case I need to say it again, I'm merely providing my analysis of this situation through my model of how the community works. I personally am passing no judgment on how HN works, nor on the community's interests and/or actions.

mike_tan 14y ago
>If no one agreed with them then theirs would be the only flag and there would be no effect. If several people agreed then there would be several flags, and that's what appears to happen. Or a moderator. Or something else that's nixing submissions. >If you feel strongly that the data you presented is on topic then perhaps you would fare better not simply to post a bare list, but write a blog post about why short names like this are of value to startups, and how having a short domain name can radically improve your chances, and how you wrote a script to create the list, and now you're sharing it because you believe it to be of value. Actionable data isn't useful? From the comments: "Amazed how many good names are still available. Looking to do a real-estate startup? How about: crib.io (available)" "I was amazed that nag.io was still available. I snatched it!"
- ColinWright 14y ago
  Let me ask you this: What good is it doing you to argue with me that this submission was of value, and shouldn't've been flagged?
  - mike_tan 14y ago
    I would hope -- but this isn't going to happen, by the looks of it -- that people would see the discussion and then not call out posts as being "pointless" or hype, or like Reddit, or link-bait, just because it's not to their particular liking. There shouldn't be a lexical kill switch for submissions. Or if it's moderators, they should re-think censorship as a reasonable action for posts that may not be to their taste.
    - ColinWright 14y ago
      Let me summarise what I think you're saying: * You saw value in it. * A few others clearly saw value in it. * Still others saw it as having negative value. * The ones who thought it had negative value flagged it. * They should not have done so. * Something should be done. Are you going to suggest what should be done?
      - mike_tan 14y ago
        https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5685907 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5685907
      - mike_tan 14y ago
        "14 hours ago you registered your username 7 hours ago you submitted an item that appears to have been flagged off the front page * 2 hours ago you submit an item about how unfair that is, and how everyone should have instantly realised how valuable your submission was. * Now you complain that your complaint is being flagged. * When I explain about how things work, you just continually come back and say that it shouldn't be like that. Well, that's how it might appear. Welcome to HN." >Well, that's how it might appear. Welcome to HN. This is a dead submission. Censored.
markokocic 14y ago
> If no one agreed with them then theirs would be the only flag and there would be no effect. If several people agreed then there would be several flags, and that's what appears to happen. It would be good if users were given not only flag, but also unflag possibility. As it is right now, it takes only a few users to flag an article to disappear, although there might be hundreds users that would be opposed to that that can affect the flagging process because there is no unflag option.
- ColinWright 14y ago
  There is an unflag option, it's voting that can't be undone, and you can't downvote a submission.
  - markokocic 14y ago
    There is unflag option where you can unflag your own flag, but it doesn't counter other peoples flags, IIRC. I'm not sure about that now, since flag right has been removed from my account some time ago, and I don't see neither flag nor unflag links anymore.
    - ColinWright 14y ago
      Why should you ever be able to undo someone else's flag?
      - markokocic 13y ago
        Why would someone else's flag affect my front page?
        ColinWright 13y ago
        I really, really don't understand your question. Consider your front page. It's the same as everyone else's front page. The ranking of the items is a function of how old each item is, how many points it has, how many flags it's got, whether it's trip a filter, etc. Now I flag an item. That penalizes the item and causes its computed value to fall. This in turn may cause its position in the rankings to fall, and thus will affect the front page. But the front page is your front page, and hence my flagging an item can affect "your" front page. How can you think it would be otherwise?