Ask HN: Why are 404 Media posts auto-killed?
I know the Vice-adjacent hyperbole of their articles is a bit much, but I enjoy reading the HN tear down of why the reporting is or isn't accurate or newsworthy.
To add a different perspective, I don’t tend to enjoy this type of thread. Not because there aren’t good comments to be found in them, but because the entire basis and temperature of the conversation shifts and there’s now a lot of added noise about the reporting itself instead of the actual topic at hand. After awhile, it gets really tiresome, and isn’t the kind of conversation HN tries to cultivate.
I come here exactly because I don’t want hyperbole/clickbait, and threads that are focused on rebutting such content are arguably just as bad. They feed engagement-driven writing (the whole problem), rile people up, and don’t really solve anything or add much value to the original story as far as I can tell.
A better source covering the same subject yields more thoughtful and substantive discussion.
2nd order feedback effects of public clique analysis would be illustrative.
They're ex-Vice.
A lot of blogs and online news sites ended up hiring ex-Vice freelancers or getting started up by their alumni after Vice shut down.
For example, a significant portion ended up as freelancers at The Guardian as well, and has been fighting tooth and nail to not provide freelancers with codified minimum rates and collectivizing.
HN often links to articles on sites like The Verge that are literally just a summary of actual reporting performed by reporters at Bloomberg, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, or another media outlet with a "hard subscribewall." The Verge and others are just leaching off the reporters and media outlets doing the actual work.
And then there's open contempt for linking to sites like 404 Media that charge.
Don't get me wrong — I sometimes use archive.is myself to bypass paywalls.
But it sure looks like HN as a community is letting itself be shaped by whoever will offer their content for free.
"Median"? Countless paywalled articles have been on the HN front page without flagging.
404 could run a feature on the latest innovations in "Grassroots for hire" persona and narrative management software.
That’s a plausible reason.
isn't accurate or newsworthy
That’s another plausible reason. Good luck.