
Ask HN: Why is the Peter Thiel Trump donation story buried by HN? - pesenti
The story http:&#x2F;&#x2F;nytimes.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;10&#x2F;16&#x2F;technology&#x2F;peter-thiel-donald-j-trump.html has been submitted multiple times but each time it was flagged and removed. It made it twice to the front page   https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=12716514 https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=12716678 with many points and comments but still got removed... Given that Thiel just became a part time advisor of YC that&#x27;s a weird coincidence.
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sctb
Moderators have not intervened on these donation stories. They received a
number of flags from users who believe they don't belong on Hacker News,
probably because political stories are specifically called out as off-topic by
the submission guidelines.

(See also
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12716673](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12716673))

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nostrademons
I would bet it's because all political stories get buried on HN. Per HN
guidelines:

"Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're
evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters,
or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-
topic."

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

~~~
piotrjurkiewicz
Few weeks ago there were constantly at least 5/30 pure political stories on
the main page. And this wasn't a problem. They weren't flagged or manually
'downweighted' by moderators like now
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12715332](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12715332)).

But these stories were mostly anti-Trump...

~~~
jerf
Perhaps they changed their policies.

Isn't it nice to be able to go somewhere and _not_ discuss the same [series of
colorful expletives expunged] topics we can discuss everywhere else? It's not
like HN has much of a unique take on the topic, at least from what I've seen.
Well, except for maybe being more generally grammatical than the usual set of
flamewars. But it's still the usual set of flamewars.

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Redoubts
This is partly why I like hckrnews.com as my front page. Stories that are
flagged yet have massive upvotes still appear there, and I'm happier for it.

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mcknz
It's getting flagged because people are tired of reading about Donald Trump
and tired of reading about Peter Thiel. I doubt there's any larger conspiracy.

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bobsgame
I'm not very political and I haven't decided who to vote for yet, but I don't
understand why the tech industry is so anti-Trump.

He seems like a relatively sincere and smart guy to me, and some of his
policies seem to be better for business.

Is it because of tougher immigration laws? Are there other reasons based on
his policies, or is it mostly just emotional?

~~~
solipsism
_He seems like a relatively sincere and smart guy to me_

I challenge you to post one quote from Trump that "seems smart".

~~~
bobsgame
I watched a few of his recent speeches and a lot of what he says seems pretty
reasonable. I think he started out being more extreme to grab attention and
now that he's got momentum he's mellowed out and actually developed rational
policies.

Most people are very emotional about it and seem to have knee-jerk reactions,
so I'd like to hear from people who actually read his finalized policies and
have specific criticisms about them, not just referencing scandals.

~~~
solipsism
Absolutely has to be a troll. EOM

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RockyMcNuts
Thiel was on the fence about donating earlier, but Trump's alleged acts of
serial sexual predation, accusations that Hillary was on drugs and should be
in jail, that people are rigging the election in the media and at voting
booths...it took those to really seal the deal!

more on-topic, seems problematic for the tech community when prominent tech
folks take a strong stand against free speech, for authoritarian anti-free-
press candidates. (while claiming libertarian leanings, to boot!)

------
sean_patel
(At the risk of getting downvoted by HN folks...)

Isn't it obvious? It's because Peter Thiel is a part-time partner at Y
Combinator.

> I’m delighted to announce Peter Thiel is joining YC as one of the (now 10!)
> part-time partners.

Source: [http://blog.ycombinator.com/welcome-
peter](http://blog.ycombinator.com/welcome-peter)

Reference:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel#Y_Combinator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Thiel#Y_Combinator)

------
pesenti
To the HN mods. Now how do you explain that this post got flagged and
removed...?

~~~
sctb
When a story says [flagged], it's because users flagged it.

~~~
pesenti
So a handful of users can decide to bury a subject even though a great
majority of HN users find it useful? This post is within the HN guidelines
(it's not about politics it's about HN processes).

~~~
gotofritz
That's how user generated content works.

