Time for Some Mobile CSS?
On mobile devices the flag/hide buttons are super close to the article and comment links. I hit them all the time unintentionally.
Maybe hacker news could throw an @media section in the CSS and make the links large enough to avoid accidental taps on mobile?
I have the same development philosphy as HN, roughly doing a minimal implementation that is close to what the machine requires. But I also value an interface that humans can use. I think with a couple lines of code HN could make this more usable without corrupting the spirit of a no-frills website.