Tell HN: HN users arbitrarily flag posts | Hacker News Reader

Tell HN: HN users arbitrarily flag posts

2 pointsaloukissas4 comments

A list of submissions that I've had flagged in the last few weeks:

1. Link to bitbucket status page, with the title that "bitbucket is down" (https://bitbucket.status.atlassian.com/incidents/xlvfft1wg7dt).

2. Link to a super useful guide by moz.com on how to move domains w/o losing SEO (https://moz.com/blog/seo-guide-how-to-properly-move-domains).

3. A twitter post in the early days of COVID-19, with perhaps the first confirmed case in Los Angeles: https://twitter.com/iheartWallSt/status/1235595431565856770

4. A great resource on contacting local officials with data-backed suggestions to improve laws related to police brutality (https://www.notion.so/Change-the-Laws-Fix-the-system-fc2958534f66443ab498ee5432ea6473)

What's worse about this: (a) you have no visibility who's flagging, (b) no reason why you're being flagged, (c) no way to appeal/discuss this. Essentially full-on censoring. One person has insane muting power.

We can do better than this, HN community.

I did not see any of these post, let a lone flag them, but here is my opinion.

1) A bit bucket status post to the status page serves little purpose. If I want to know the status I can visit the status page. Perhaps a better post might have been "Is bitbuckt down for anyone else? I can't seem to get to it".

2) The Moz move page is almost 11 years old. I did not read it, but are you sure other did not find it outdated?

3) I am not interested in covid articles on a site dedicated to "hacker news"

4) I am not interested in social justice or police brutality on a site related to hacker news.

If I wanted social commentary (and I don't) there or other better ways to get it than here.

> (a) you have no visibility who's flagging

Well, obviously? Otherwise you might have nasty attacks from some users.

> (b) no reason why you're being flagged

Everyone has a different reason, but I sort of agree, it would be great to be able to tell mods why we're flagging, like on reddit.

> (c) no way to appeal/discuss this

Yes you do, you can send an email to hn@ycombinator.com. Controversial posts get unfortunately flagged by users, and mods can put them back.

“On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.“ From https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Your links do not fit the above description. Even your complaint is extremely questionable: discussing downvotes is strongly discouraged (and will often be strongly downvoted).

Hoe much time have you spent watching the community and thinking about your question yourself?

Edit: using the word “arbitrary” is definitely against the guideline to “Assume good faith“ and I have flagged your “Tell HN” because of that. It is hard to find a good compromise with your question - but I have answered you the best I can as a community member (not a moderator). Edit 2: I have showdead turned on, and I am honestly surprised at how little gets flagged (a lot more should be). I regularly read flagged items, but very very rarely do flagged items fit guidelines. Edit 3: looks like your item has been flagged: I will check my comment later for questions if these answers are not sufficient for you.

Submit better things. Look at the guidelines.

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