https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27093483
> Does it track things that were on the front page but were flagged? I've been looking for that.
...and...
> I sort of think there should be an 'important flagged discussions' link, ones with otherwise lots of engagement that got flagged by people who were opposed to the viewpoint of the post.
An example of such a post:
The not-so-drastic truth behind climate change
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27097434
This article was on my frontpage, I read the 10 or so comments that were there and then forwarded it to myself as I love reading discussions about culture war topics, but when I refreshed HN immediately after reading the comments, I discovered that not only was it no longer on the front page, but it couldn't be found on any of the 17 pages provided when hitting next and searching for it. This is far from the first time I've noticed this happening with articles of this nature, and I think it would be very interesting to be able to see what ideas the HN moderators don't want the minds of their users exposed to.
I think there are also several specific (and influential) subreddits that would also yield some very interesting results. Of course, you run the risk of getting your scraper blocked which would ruin your entire project...but on the other hand, if you were able to find a technical way around such blocking (I assume there are services that allow one to scrape using a large pool of ip's?) I think you could make this project significantly more interesting than it already is. Being able to see the things you are already showing is mildly interesting, but being able to see a list of particular topics that the powerful gatekeepers of information (in a very real sense, demi-gods who exert significant control over the publics' very perception of reality) do not want people to see is far more interesting, and in turn may make your service far more popular than it would be in its current form.
EDIT: And it keeps getting more interesting...now the parent comment to the one I made[1] in that thread is [deleted] - not sure if that's a user invoked delete or moderator - I assume the former, as if it was a moderator I assume mine would have been toasted also.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27098186
>> Even re-production and communication should be discussed.
> I think the most interesting and valuable/useful perspective to discuss this topic from (aside from "the science") is from a human psychology (which is heavily dependent on communication) perspective. Ultimately, actually doing something about climate change (regardless of what the consensus decision of that is) requires political support, and from what we've seen on that front, that seems to be the weakest link within the entire multidimensional problem.
> Speaking of human psychology (and communication, and perception of reality), note how quickly moderators were able to memory hole this post - it was on my front page 10 minutes ago, and now it can no longer be found within the first 17 pages of HN. I've seen this phenomenon occur on several occasions over the years, and I don't even check HN all that often, and in each case (of the ones I've noticed) it tends to be particularly controversial topics like this one, where the perspective of the article is "controversial".
Human beings (and all the clever mischievousness they get up to) are completely fascinating creatures, I can't understand why so few people find them interesting.
EDIT 2: And just now does the post have a [flagged] tag, wonder why it disappeared before even being flagged.