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Comment by dcow | Hacker News Reader

Meta comment: It's disappointing to see this axed from the front page. While I agree we should generally avoid low quality flame-war inducing content, the fact that Nature, one of the most prestigious and renown scientific magazines/journals has adopted such a viewpoint certainly warrants exposure and discussion.

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I don't see any evidence that it was "axed", it is not getting that many upvotes and is falling to later pages.

It was top 5 or 10 or so on the front page and then after a page refresh gone. It has more votes than many of the topics on the front page and discussion is active. Maybe just really unlucky timing on my part but not the normal progression you see. I know these type topics are typically removed from the spotlight by staff out of a presumption that the comments won’t be productive. I think that’s fair in some cases, but if it was done in this case I am stating my disagreement.

I noticed the exact same thing. I found the post on the front page. A short time after, mid second page. Last I checked it was on the 3rd. I suspect there’s a bit too much wrongthink going on here and someone doesn’t like it. The priesthood is displeased with the vulgar masses in this thread.

When I clicked on it (4 hours after you posted this comment) it was in the 12th place on the first page.

It goes up and down. Don't assume malevolence.

Sometimes people flag posts. You can click "vouch" after a certain karma level to unflag it.

IIRC, posts with more comments than votes are automatically penalized. It is #11 on the front page now, though.

I'm guessing that's because they tend to be more controversial? But I mean, sometimes controversial stuff is important, that's why it's controversial.

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