
Ask HN: Bias in flagging stories? - curtisblaine
So, today I posted this NYT article regarding a settlement Asia Argento paid to an underage boy who accused her of rape in order to avoid trial: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=17798703<p>The post has been flagged and it&#x27;s not possible to comment it anymore.<p>I&#x27;m not familiar on how HN flagging works; I understand it&#x27;s been flagged by an user for some reason and that flagging prevents it to reach the frontpage or to discuss the story further. I also guess it&#x27;s been flagged because it&#x27;s not in line with the usual content you might find in HN.<p>That would be OK, but why a number of, let&#x27;s say, specular stories (the ones where Argento accused Hollywood producer Harwey Weinstein have <i>not</i> been flagged and some of them reached the front page? (e.g.: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hn.algolia.com&#x2F;?query=harwey%20weinsten&amp;sort=byPopularity&amp;prefix=false&amp;page=0&amp;dateRange=all&amp;type=story).<p>I just joined HN last year and I&#x27;m not incredibly familiar with its internal mechanics. Is there an implicit bias regarding what can and what can not be posted? Did the Weinstein stories get to the top because HN &quot;likes&quot; their narrative more than Argento&#x27;s story? Not making any accusations, of course, this is just to understand. Happy to engage in respectful discussion.<p>Thanks,
Curtis.
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pwg
I did not see the story, therefore I had no 'flagging' input into it, but
based upon the "guidelines":
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)
and your description of the story above, I'd bet that a few users felt it fell
into this category:

Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, ... If they'd cover it on TV
news, it's probably off-topic.

~~~
curtisblaine
But the Weinstein stories have been not flagged. That's why I ask: is there an
implicit bias? Should one only post stories that support a certain narrative?

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DanBC
As you say, you're ignorant of how flagging works.

It's probably a good idea to stop flinging accusations of bias around until
you understand the balance between upvotes and flags.

~~~
curtisblaine
What I see is a story about Weinstein abusing Argento in the front page and a
story about Argento abusing an underage boy flagged. And I get answers like
"HN is not for news". Shouldn't it be both ways?

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forgottenpass
The HN internals are kept a bit opaque. Some users can flag, and then IIRC it
can be "vouch"-ed for once, where it might be re-flagged again. Upvotes may
factor in. Mods will occasionally override manually. Luck of the draw is
always a factor.

I'd say that the bias around the Weinstein stories were that they were simply
very hot in the mainstream, and that caused otherwise off-topic posts to catch
some traction here.

~~~
curtisblaine
To be fair, the linked story was doing quite well, in terms of upvotes, until
someone flagged it repeatedly.

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curtisblaine
For completeness sake, the story title was "Asia Argento, accused of rape of
an underage boy, pays $380k deal to avoid trial (nytimes.com)" and pointed to
[https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/19/us/asia-argento-
assault-j...](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/19/us/asia-argento-assault-
jimmy-bennett.html)

------
curtisblaine
Edit: it seems the story has been unflagged. I'm kinda confused in how the
whole thing works.

~~~
personjerry
I vouched it, that's why it was unflagged. I thought it was an interesting
other perspective, regardless of which "side" you believe.

~~~
curtisblaine
Still flagged though :(

