Thanks. Is there any way to query a list of stories which qualified for manual elevation?
Edit: does the escalation algorithm perform batch escalations at fixed times every day, working from a queue of manually approved escalations? Or is the timing and quantity of escalations in each batch also manually approved?
That's a bit vague so I may not address your concern exactly, but it sounds like you're worried about the front page not being a simple ranking by community upvotes. HN has never been a simple ranking by community upvotes; it has always been a blend of upvotes and curation. Why? Because, unfortunately, upvotes alone would produce a front page of controversy, gossip, and fashion. Upvotes go disproportionately for 'hot' stories. Since we want quieter, more reflective material on, there needs to be a countervailing factor.
Re abuse, you'd have to be more specific about what you mean, but I suppose the general answer is you needn't be more worried about it now than you've been for the previous seven years, since there hasn't been any major change at that level. The major change has been greater transparency, because users asked for it.
https://hn.algolia.com/?q=author%3Adang+cracks#!/comment/for...
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8157880
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8134682
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8122403