Ask HN: How can a thread immediately go from unflagged to [flagged][dead]?

I don't know if anyone other than dang knows the actual details, but it's my belief that it takes a fairly small number of flags to kill a story. If something is controversial enough, I believe it could collect enough flags to go [dead] pretty quickly.

This literally happened over the course of, like, 30 seconds, though — and after almost an hour of sitting around unflagged.

Hmm. Not sure what to tell you. Other than, if you're really interested enough, email dang and see what he has to say. Or hope he wades into this thread.

Your link does not appear dead to me.

Looks like it got vouched back to life.

What was the original link?

"Musk aides lock government workers out of computer systems at US agency": https://www.reuters.com/world/us/musk-aides-lock-government-...

Let's see if this one is flagged: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42892278

Yep, this one now flagged. (original in this thread now un-flagged).