Ask HN: Why is my post flagged?

1 point·bnormative··4 comments

I submitted a simple ask post, which was not spam or fraudulent.

It was flag within 3 minutes.

Ask HN: Who Is Firing? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41436298

can anyone guess why it was flagged?

Flags are submitted on posts by individuals for reasons that are of their own choosing.[1] If enough users flag a story, it goes into the [dead][flagged] state you see. But unless the users who flagged it choose to chime in, there's no real way to be sure why it was flagged.

That said, if I had to guess, I'd say @Udo nailed it. The topic just doesn't seem like something that is going to lead to high-quality and interesting discussion. I mean, I wouldn't have flagged it myself (I'm pretty laissez-faire on that kind of thing) but I can see why others might have.

[1]: within reason. I don't know if it's been explicitly stated or not, but I suspect that if a user kept flagging stories for no good reason, they would lose their ability to flag, or have some other consequences. But that's just a guess, I have no insider knowledge or anything.

I agree. Moreover, monthly semi-repetitive post usually don't get traction except the first time. Looking at https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Ask%20HN%3A%20Who%20Is%20Firin... I see one successful post per year. I wouldn't have flagged it, but I don't expect it to get traction.

My guess would be that it was flagged because the subject invites unproductive controversy and low quality discussion.

Publicly announcing that someone will be fire is very unprofessional, or an extreme measure. And (IANAL) publicly talking about details is profoundly unwise.

Add things up - your item requesting that people violate a number of social taboos.

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