Hacker News Reader

Comment by thereare5lights | Hacker News Reader

At this time, only 4 hours old and 93 points, but is buried as #257 on the 9th page. What gives?

From the FAQ:

> "How are stories ranked?"

> "The basic algorithm divides points by a power of the time since a story was submitted. Comments in threads are ranked the same way."

> "Other factors affecting rank include user flags, anti-abuse software, software which demotes overheated discussions, and moderator intervention."

From what I've seen, having so many more comments than points is one of the triggers for the "overheated discussions". Probably not the only factor, but probably a significant one.

The moderators have a long-standing bias towards the political right. A black man with a PhD in Mathematics is not allowed to speak out about systemic racism on Hacker News.

Forgive me for sharing a sample of my collection:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15032682

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15585780

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15546533

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16134205

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17197581

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18664482

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=slamdance

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13110004

I know how obvious it seems that the bias is against you, but that's mostly because you (i.e. any of us) are 1000x more likely to notice cases you dislike or disagree with.

Your handling of this comment section was irresponsible. If you cannot handle this responsibility you should ban submissions and comments dealing with any and all social issues and allow only technical discussion. You have allowed a hateful element to silence a voice that spoke truth to power by making simple observations about how mathematicians handle race over a course of decades. The moderation of this submission was unreasonable and discompassionate.

Edit: To my brigader bot, I am responding directly to a moderator. I want him to read this comment. Flagging it immediately after I post is actually helpful. Downvoting it only helps to prove my point.

To be honest I'm having a hard time orienting to your complaint here. The only thing I remember about the thread is banning someone who commented from (I think?) the opposite side to yours, so if anything I'd expect the bias accusation to run the other way.

If you think we made a mistake in the thread, it'd be more helpful to post (or email us) a link and point out the specific mistake. Rote denunciations don't help us correct anything, and general accusations like https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19195885 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19194629 don't add information, because you're simply not working with an accurate picture of what we do. I understand how that happens, but there isn't much in it I can learn from.

My complaint from the beginning was that you stifled conversation by detaching this thread and because every comment is flagged and downvoted automatically you have allowed those who are afraid of this type of discussion to sabotage any submission they dislike. You caved to the brigade instead of acting as a responsible moderator. The ranking algorithm and the moderation policies are too crude for this type of submission. It would be more responsible to disallow them entirely.

What you say about the comments is clearly not the case, as anyone can see by looking at the thread.

I'm not sure what you mean by detaching the thread.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com