some people dislike this, others hold the opposite opinion
From the guidelines
> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
An interesting example is the results of the US presidential election often sitting at the #1 spot for a while
I'd counter that it led to a meta discussion about HN, which is good from time to time, to see how each other think about the content policies here, over assuming everyone thinks the same about it only being tech and tangential
if you find content inappropriate for HN, flag it, hide it, and move on
You can go literally any place online to preach this, why is HN trying to carve out something that isn't the same slop you see everywhere else so objectionable? It's the internet, you aren't the only one with a cause, and once that ball gets rolling nothing is ultimately left in its path except purity tests and fights without any intellectual dimension to them.
Almost as though there’s a prevailing culture opposed to it and backed up by stringent moderation. Think of it as an immune system, you let it go and then body is overwhelmed.
ah, we doing the moderation conspiracy theory too?
I have yet to see any credible evidence or analysis for this in more than 15 years on HN, just anecdotes and occasional instances where moderation shows its a hard and imperfect job
Why is this flagged? It’s information about what is happening in Palestine. Why is information flagged? Isn’t curiosity and information sharing a principle on which hackers stand?
It is flagged because enough users clicked on the "flag" link/action. Users tend to do that for stories they don't feel belong here, which especially happens with politically loaded non-tech stories, as they are listed as off-topic in the guidelines[1]:
Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
Moderators sometimes unflag stories, if they feel the discussion is genuine.
Excellent video by "Seal On Tour" that shows Israeli terrorists that are supported by the Israeli "defense" force.
This is not the place.
Why? Care to elaborate ?
Israel crimes are oft discussed on HN and have staying power on the frontpage
Top "israel" posts from the last year, many with over 1000 karma
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=pastYear&page=0&prefix=tru...
Presence or occasional popularity are not evidence of desirability.
What is then evidence of desirability? Whatever andsoitis considers desirable?
Who the heck are you exactly?
Well, I wish they weren't, because this has literally nothing to do with tech and hacking.
Information. Use search function there are many things posted here that have nothing to do with tech or hacking.
HN is not just tech and hacking though
some people dislike this, others hold the opposite opinion
From the guidelines
> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
An interesting example is the results of the US presidential election often sitting at the #1 spot for a while
And you think this story falls into which category: on- or off-topic?
I would say that on the ground video accounts are more interesting than mainstream media content for this topic in our post-truth world
many submissions span both and the HN community is on average pretty good about filtering wheat from chaff
The post is not generating interesting discussion. It isn't expanding minds. It doesn't spark curiosity.
I'd counter that it led to a meta discussion about HN, which is good from time to time, to see how each other think about the content policies here, over assuming everyone thinks the same about it only being tech and tangential
if you find content inappropriate for HN, flag it, hide it, and move on
Did you even watch the video ? Are you not infuriated by the actions of Israeli settler terrorists?
You can go literally any place online to preach this, why is HN trying to carve out something that isn't the same slop you see everywhere else so objectionable? It's the internet, you aren't the only one with a cause, and once that ball gets rolling nothing is ultimately left in its path except purity tests and fights without any intellectual dimension to them.
HNers have been saying the same thing you just did for more than a decade. The negative feedback loop has yet to metastasize
Almost as though there’s a prevailing culture opposed to it and backed up by stringent moderation. Think of it as an immune system, you let it go and then body is overwhelmed.
ah, we doing the moderation conspiracy theory too?
I have yet to see any credible evidence or analysis for this in more than 15 years on HN, just anecdotes and occasional instances where moderation shows its a hard and imperfect job
I’m giving credit where it’s due, I’m here because the mods are so good at what they do despite the influx of AI posts and the rest.
You misread what I said.
the use of "it" leaves a lot of ambiguity
"stringent moderation" has certain connotations often accompanying the moderation conspiracy theorists comments here
forgive me for interpreting this way based on the above and in the context of your broader comment history
Why is this flagged? It’s information about what is happening in Palestine. Why is information flagged? Isn’t curiosity and information sharing a principle on which hackers stand?
Dang, or someone can explain why this is flagged?
It is flagged because enough users clicked on the "flag" link/action. Users tend to do that for stories they don't feel belong here, which especially happens with politically loaded non-tech stories, as they are listed as off-topic in the guidelines[1]:
Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
Moderators sometimes unflag stories, if they feel the discussion is genuine.
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
> Why is this flagged?
The people have voted.