Hacker News Reader

Comment by paul7986 | Hacker News Reader

My comment here is regards to the ability for any HN reader to flag a story. Case in point this front page post about A male peer standing up against sexist behavior https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15894242

Why was this flagged.. what is inappropriate about this article and why can any Hacker News reader flag posts? Shouldn't admins only have this capability?

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I may be wrong but I am under the impression that "flagging" something merely brings it to the attention of a mod. Certainly, I've never seen anything happen as the direct result of me flagging something.

In this instance at least flagging it took it off the front page and did so quickly!

What was the readers reason for flagging it?

Likely to engender exactly the sort of boring meta discussion that you've managed to start :)

(After a while you get attuned to the HN hive mind/group subconscious, and it's easy to tell which articles will induce this sort of thing.)

You're digging into a topic I've inquired about many times. I've never received any response from any admin. Ironically my submission was flagged itself for asking why certain articles were flagged and hidden. See here Ask HN: Why are “Google memo” links being flagged and hidden? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14994180

dang replied to you in that thread: the flags are coming from the users. So what exactly are you expecting more? Mind-reading the motivations of individual flaggers?

Probably ignoring unwarranted flags.

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