The post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32917888
Whenever an article doesn't meet HN's [boring] guidelines [0], some of the account holders aggressively flag it. This is a good thing on average, because otherwise HN would be shitty in all the same ways as Reddit. At least this way, ze haq0rnewz gets to be shitty in a different way: due to lack of gossip and adolescent humor.
The same thing happened to a submission of mine just yesterday with the Beyond Meat Facebiting COO [1]. They don't always get publicly marked as "flagged", though. Sometimes they just drop way far back from FP.
In the end, what does it matter? No one person should control what appears on the front page or not, and HN points are truly one of the most worthless forms of currency I can think of. Be grateful some people enjoyed it before it got murdered! I'm sure you made their day a bit brighter.
I'd be interested to know whether it was flagging, or moderation.
Just being honest with my best guess, a lot of people around here are even grumpier and more rigid than me.
I feel you, it is sometimes disappointing.
If you're really curious on how your submission's fate was sealed, I suggest emailing le Dang (hn@ycombinator.com). He's extremely polite and quite pleasant, and has always been generous in answering my questions.
One tip: always search https://hn.algolia.com first. Frequently he just pastes a link to there, because he's answered the question so many times previously.
I didn't flag it, so I have to guess. The title promise more than what the post deliver. It looks like an interesting idea, but it would be better if each Pokemon was more similar to the flag of the country or to a common estereotipe of the country. Most look pokemonky, but too generic. It's difficult to look at one and guess the country.
Edit: Typos