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Comment by akerl_ | Hacker News Reader

I'm willing to bet that has way more to do with the substantial body of people flagging down all the NSA posts than some mod conspiracy

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It's probably people flagging it and not the mods, yes. But are the people flagging it actual users?

The story in question here had 200 upvotes when it was a link to an NSA story at Slate. The link was changed to the same, source NSA story at First Look and it was quickly flagged to oblivion. I think there're likely some monitoring scripts and flag alerts at play, not just NSA fatigue by actual users.

Where do you go to get this definitive data on HN activities?

From Daniel Gackle, who comments on the stories that get buried.

That's exactly the problem. You received that info directly from a third person. There is no transparency. Would you believe everything I say? I wouldn't. But if the facts where out there you wouldn't need to. On an issue such as this where people take such sustained and intense interest, your second hand account of someone giving you their word is not sufficient. Maybe it is for you, but please don't condescend by passing it along as though it must be for others.

The third person is the site moderator. And yes, I believe pretty much whatever Daniel tells me. He's that kind of guy.

"That Daniel Gackle is the HN moderator" is the kind of factual detail you might want to know before developing very strong opinions about how the site is run.

Please see my other comment on this page where explicitly say I completely agree HN is in the right in running a site in this manner. I was just trying to point out that while you may know Daniel others might not. And, again, I believe that a moderator system is 100% fine. HN news has made it work and produces quality content. But, for someone to tell me that since they know someone I should keep my trap shut, it's a little presumptuous.

First, nobody told you to keep your trap shut.

Second, if you don't trust the site moderators, HN isn't going to be a pleasant place to spend time.

sheesh. your comment isn't a pleasant place to spent time. someone needs some internet kitten love.

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