Hacker News Reader

(not a mod just been on this website forever)

At this exact moment, there's 49 points, but 45 comments. If comments >= points, you get a significant ranking penalty (the "flamebait detector", iirc). I can't say for sure that that's happened, but given how close the two numbers are, I bet at some point that was true.

Ahhh, that sounds likely, thanks!

Given the controversy on-thread about the length of the intro, calling it the bottom emoji, and the title making it sound like the problem is specific to that emoji, I wouldn't be surprised if it has collected a number of flags as well as tripping the overheated discursion detector.

FWIW I enjoy your articles in general and this was not an exception, although I could have done with a shorter exposition myself ;)

Could be automated, there's the flamebait detector that deranks if it gets a high comments/vote ratio.