Tell HN: Don't just downvote - flag it. | Hacker News Reader

Tell HN: Don't just downvote - flag it.

Sometimes there's a comment that shouldn't just be downvoted, it should be flagged as totally inappropriate or unacceptable. Click on the "link" link, then click "flag".

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I might be jaded, but I guess I don't see much benefit. If it's down at -4, I rarely read it anyway, and even if I do, I'm pretty decent at pattern-matching so I'll stop reading once I figure out what kind of comment it is. That's a pretty natural skill once you've been on the internet for a few months, isn't it? The stuff that actually bugs me and wastes my time thinking about / responding to is more likely to be stuff that I can't really legitimately flag (people honestly holding really stupid opinions).

I have flagged this post as inappropriate. Who do you think you are, anyway?

I'm someone who's been here about 2 years, and objects to stories of torture and rape appearing here.

I would've thought anyone would object to the story of tying up and beating a 13 year-old, then wanking all over her and threatening to kill her if she told anyone.

Perhaps you think it's appropriate for that sort of story to be here on HackerNews. If so, perhaps you'd care to state the fact clearly and in full.

And in case you're wondering, it's not the Bel-Aire "stories" I'm objecting to. Turn on "Show Dead" in your profile and check this comment:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1822990

Hmmm I added another "Ask HN" pertaining this worrying content - I don't actually see a "flag" link in my interface (or a downvote) so wasn't aware that it even existed. But definitely - this macabre content does NOT belong on HN.

I don't think you have enough karma yet for your account to be flagging-enabled.

Here's an example:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1822990

Literally made me feel sick, and I hope, really hope, it was someone's misplaced sense of humor.

It doesn't belong here. Flag it.

Here are some more - I'm detecting a theme:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1823062

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1822976

It's been killed so it's hard to know what was so bad that we should flag it. Not that I'm against flagging.

If you turn on "Show Dead" in your profile you'll be able to see that it's a vile and almost certainly illegal description of the torture and rape of a 12 year old girl.

> "vile and almost certainly illegal description"

I'm pretty sure it didn't really happen. Or are you claiming that the act of describing a fictitious event is illegal?

wtf? I just saw bel-aire.

The first one I linked to is certainly not a Bel-Aire story, it's a story of torture and rape.

whether it did or did not happen doesn't change the legality of it.

I never thought I'd get Bel-Aired on HN.

I think the first one was a bit misplaced, although the last line of it made me chuckle.

Maybe it's just someone pointing out the banality of a "Tell us your naughty stories" thread.

I agree it should be flagged though. It's just boring spam. But the -4 seems to work pretty well anyway.

Is there a special flag for 'early cliches' ? Oh wait, thats the behavior the system promotes.

Hacker news has become a system highly adept at promoting the most obvious, most common kind of trolling... provided that it happens soon as the link hits the front page. This derails the entire thread, and you can't collapse entire bullshit conversations.

This is an algorithmic and interface fix that is needed.

Collapsible threads:

http://alexander.kirk.at/2010/02/16/collapsible-threads-for-...

Sweet, thanks!

But hopefully most really bad comments are just that, really bad -- not flaggable.

I agree we should flag really, really bad comments. I just want to add that we already have enough flagging of articles we don't agree with. Don't need to start that with comments too.

Vote on whether you like it or not. Flag based on whether you think it belongs on the board -- and take a very liberal position about what you think belongs on the board. Remember that controversial and counter-intuitive comments are desired. Your disagreement should hardly be reason for flagging.

Agreed.

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