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Ask HN: What happened to the Gradberry thread?

3 points by thebiglebrewski 12y ago

Was it killed by HN mods because it's a YCombinator company?

gus_massa 12y ago
It's still alive https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9332418 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9332418
- thebiglebrewski 12y ago
  Ah. Weird that I don't see it on hckrnews or on the front page anywhere...
dang 12y ago
HN mods don't kill stories because they're about YC companies. On the contrary, when bad stories about YC startups appear, we either don't penalize them at all, or at least not as much as we otherwise would. It's literally the first thing PG emphasized when showing me how he moderated HN. People are understandably suspicious about this, and we don't expect suspicion to go away just because we say so. But this way we can answer in good conscience.
- thebiglebrewski 12y ago
  That's really good to hear. Honestly, I trust you guys and the mods for the most part. But I just got a bit weirded out and wanted some clarification. Thanks for the info!
  - dang 12y ago
    You're welcome. Any time. You'll more reliably get a response if you send your questions to hn@ycombinator.com, though. We don't always see these.
JoshTriplett 12y ago
As the person who posted the Gradberry thread, I don't think it was buried or otherwise penalized by HN moderators. I wouldn't be surprised if a few people flagged it, but shrug, stuff happens. See http://hnrankings.info/9332418/ http://hnrankings.info/9332418/ ; there's only one big drop there, and it occurred in the morning when people would start posting a lot of other stories that would push it down. And even then, it stayed on the front page for many hours; a flagged or moderated story would drop off much faster. Not everything is a conspiracy; assume good faith. On the other hand, I'm curious why someone edited the title of the thread. When I originally posted it, I wrote "Gradberry (YC W15)" in the title, but someone edited that out. Since this wasn't a link to an article, there was no original title to match there. What gives?
- thebiglebrewski 12y ago
  Yeah, I don't assume conspiracy, it just seemed to disappear really quick so I wanted to have a discussion about that =). Thanks for your post!
- dang 12y ago
  The "YC XYY" tags are for launches and major third-party articles. We take them out of other titles, especially blog posts and things posted by the startups themselves.
  - JoshTriplett 12y ago
    Why? Seems like it'd be fine for articles about YC startups to always mention that they're YC startups and what batch they were in.
    - dang 12y ago
      That's the way it's always been. Perhaps so it doesn't get over-used? I never asked pg about it.

Was it killed by HN mods because it's a YCombinator company?

gus_massa 12y ago

It's still alive https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9332418 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9332418

thebiglebrewski 12y ago
Ah. Weird that I don't see it on hckrnews or on the front page anywhere...

dang 12y ago

HN mods don't kill stories because they're about YC companies. On the contrary, when bad stories about YC startups appear, we either don't penalize them at all, or at least not as much as we otherwise would. It's literally the first thing PG emphasized when showing me how he moderated HN. People are understandably suspicious about this, and we don't expect suspicion to go away just because we say so. But this way we can answer in good conscience.

thebiglebrewski 12y ago
That's really good to hear. Honestly, I trust you guys and the mods for the most part. But I just got a bit weirded out and wanted some clarification. Thanks for the info!
- dang 12y ago
  You're welcome. Any time. You'll more reliably get a response if you send your questions to hn@ycombinator.com, though. We don't always see these.

JoshTriplett 12y ago

As the person who posted the Gradberry thread, I don't think it was buried or otherwise penalized by HN moderators. I wouldn't be surprised if a few people flagged it, but shrug, stuff happens. See http://hnrankings.info/9332418/ http://hnrankings.info/9332418/ ; there's only one big drop there, and it occurred in the morning when people would start posting a lot of other stories that would push it down. And even then, it stayed on the front page for many hours; a flagged or moderated story would drop off much faster. Not everything is a conspiracy; assume good faith. On the other hand, I'm curious why someone edited the title of the thread. When I originally posted it, I wrote "Gradberry (YC W15)" in the title, but someone edited that out. Since this wasn't a link to an article, there was no original title to match there. What gives?

thebiglebrewski 12y ago
Yeah, I don't assume conspiracy, it just seemed to disappear really quick so I wanted to have a discussion about that =). Thanks for your post!
dang 12y ago
The "YC XYY" tags are for launches and major third-party articles. We take them out of other titles, especially blog posts and things posted by the startups themselves.
- JoshTriplett 12y ago
  Why? Seems like it'd be fine for articles about YC startups to always mention that they're YC startups and what batch they were in.
  - dang 12y ago
    That's the way it's always been. Perhaps so it doesn't get over-used? I never asked pg about it.