Ask HN: Is There Some Reason That A Lot Of Articles Are Dying?

[joe_the_user]

There was apenwar's article on Bitcoin and the article on the best to hire a programmer. I'll admit that neither was absolutely first-rate but flagging/deleting them seems a bit extreme. Is there some new school of "deletionism" appearing on HN?

[pg]

I haven't noticed any change. It's easier to flag stuff, in the sense that flag links appear in more places. On the other hand, flags now have less weight than they used to. Can you tell me which specific stories you're talking about?

[bhousel → pg]

Speaking of flag links, I've lost them. Did I inadvertently do something to get myself flagbanned?

[pfedor → pg]

I believe this is one of the articles OP mentioned: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2528360

According to one of the comments, it was killed several times.

[JoachimSchipper → pfedor]

To be fair, though, there appears to be a group of people who are very enthusiastic about Bitcoin. It may not be part of a general trend of articles being flagged down unfairly.

[hasenj → JoachimSchipper]

That story was really badly written. Full of "if you don't agree with me you're an idiot" kind of insults.

The author even says at the end:

> For the record, I'm stupid and trolling. That's why it was hard to tell.

I can't tell if he said that as a sarcasm, though.

[pg → pfedor]

That story has only one flag, so nothing would have pulled it down. It does however have one of the strangest voting patterns I've ever seen.

[waterlesscloud → pg]

Here's a killed submission of the same story.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2527746

[pg → waterlesscloud]

Sure enough. In fact, there are several. They weren't autokilled. They must have been killed by editors. I will investigate.

[pg → pg]

I don't know if anyone will see this, but I finally figured out what went wrong. They were killed by a bug that was essentially causing flags to be counted double.

[flignats]

I wrote a pretty good post on how we were rejected from YC accepted into YetiZen and we were looking for a tech cofounder. It disappeared 10 min after I released it this morning.

[sc68cal]

I think people are a bit sick of the topics.

[waterlesscloud → sc68cal]

Well, if we're supposed to be flagging topics we're tired of, there's a lot on the front page that needs to go.

[flignats → waterlesscloud]

clickable: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2528911

What was the reason for this being buried immediately? Honestly curious - not a valid topic?

[pg → flignats]

It wasn't buried. It only got 1 upvote. 2 points is not enough to get onto the frontpage.

[flignats → pg]

I wasn't intending front page - thought it would be on the 'ask' threads, those don't fall down the page nearly as fast.

[pg → flignats]

Do you see anything else on the first ask page with 2 points?

[flignats → pg]

Oh wow a smart guy that can't actually see the point that was made by my statement. I posted the thread and it was removed/pushed down. It didn't stick around and leave the page as new posts came through.

Now you're not going to hurt my feelings by saying you didn't like the post. My only question was - why?

[steve19 → flignats]

Dude, why be rude to pg? What can you possibly gain? He was not being rude to you, simply answering your question.

Pro tip: don't burn bridges with powerful people whom one day you might help/investment/advice/partnership from.

[lotharbot → flignats]

New posts don't start on the front page. They start on the "new" page. They don't make the front page unless they get several votes in the first few minutes.

If you're used to some other site where new posts start on the front page and then drop down over time, this might surprise you and make you think your post was removed or pushed down. That is not the case.

Also, I think you owe pg an apology.

[pg → flignats]

It wasn't removed or pushed down.