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Comment by Mistletoe | Hacker News Reader

Flagging is used in a bizarre way on HN that is more akin to censorship. This should only be flagged if it was found that this article was fraudulent and incorrect and he didn’t say that in my opinion. Everything else should be handled by upvotes and downvotes.

I found this info interesting in a Reddit aviation thread. It helps with the tinfoil hat feelings.

>He was not testifying against Boeing for anything to do with their planes. He already did that and has been public about it since 2019. This deposition was for the appeal for his own civil defamation case against Boeing, which he orginially lost. So Boeing was not threatened by his testimony in anyway. Even if they lost the case or settled, it would be a drop in the bucket compared to the harm he has already caused them and other legal issues they are already having...

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According to dang: “The purpose of flagging is to indicate that a story does not belong on HN.” [0] It’s valid to think that a topic that is essentially just gossip and speculation does not belong on HN. See also the “Off-Topic” section in the guidelines [1].

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12173836

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

That makes sense, thank you. I can imagine that a more substantive piece would not be flagged.

A sibling comment convinced me, this was probably flagged correctly. Not that the title statement is not important, but that this piece specifically is an especially shallow article and not up to standards.

To the best of my knowledge, his civil case revolves around his claim that Boeing retaliated against him for his whistleblowing. "Company that cut corners on safety found to have retaliated against whistleblower" certainly seems like it would have a pretty significant impact on PR and stock price.

>This should only be flagged if it was found that this article was fraudulent and incorrect and he didn’t say that in my opinion.

Okay then it should be flagged by your reasoning, did you read the article? Because there's no proof in it that he ever said it. A woman who refused to identify herself past a first name claims he said it.

Submissions cannot be downvoted. They can only be upvoted or flagged. Flagging is the tool we have for off-topic submissions.

Comments can be upvoted, downvoted, or flagged. There, voting may be used to express agreement and disagreement, but flagging should only be used for comments that violate the site's guidelines.

Okay I'm not interested in participating in this community anymore. It's an incredibly stupid way to handle anything and reeks of censorship and mob rule by a few that hit the flag button every time a story disturbs their world view.

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