Ask HN: Why are mods burying NSA stories?

I don't know what you mean by "a super penalty". It's a mild penalty (the second mildest there is) applied algorithmically. It's been in place for over a year. We've posted about it more than once.

It's an attempt to strike a balance. There are vocal people who feel that HN has been overrun by NSA stories, and there are vocal people who feel that HN outrageously suppresses NSA stories. We try to treat both as legitimate branches of the community.

Your account isn't penalized.

The story you submitted didn't get any special moderation penalty. It got a mild automated penalty for being NSA-related (this has been in place for over a year) and then it got several user flags. By the time you complained about its rank dropping, it was already rising again. This is what happens when some users upvote an item while others flag it.

The HN guidelines say that most stories about politics are off-topic. The story you posted is pure politics. The thread immediately degenerated into accusing Muslims of being fifth columnists and rapists. That's the kind of thing that happens in pure political threads. (That one is particularly dismaying, though. If there is anything less desirable on Hacker News than religious flamewars, I can't think of what it might be.)

The HN guidelines emphasize that Hacker News is not all tech-related. Stories of intellectual substance are welcome on all subjects. A scholarly paper about brain research is plainly within this scope, even if it isn't a great scholarly paper about brain research.

The HN guidelines ask you not to post complaints about moderation to Hacker News itself, but instead to email hn@ycombinator.com, where we are happy to answer questions. We can't always reply immediately, but we do reply.

HN is a forum run by PG, run for PG, run off PG. When my last account was ghost-banned I spent 2-3 hours looking for the comment which might have caused it (I hadn't submitted ever, only asked a few tech/productivity related questions a couple of time which, honestly, did poorly) but I really couldn't find it. Then I googled around and found out that that trend was like a fixture on HN. Initially I was pissed but then I convinced myself just to ignore it. But then I really find some nice articles on HN submitted by people from various fields. So I created another account for the occasional strictly casual comments I make. I thought it would be a waste of both their (mods') time and my time to request an unban or reconsideration. I have almost stopped down-voting, up-voting and open HN once or twice a day and cursorily check first 2 pages (click comments of any story I find interesting) and then close it.

I hope you didn't find my response off-topic.