An anecdotal suspicion only (sample size = 3); I don't have any data as evidence except what's stored in my own memory.<p>The submission <i>YouTube Premium is getting a big price hike internationally</i> [1] from half an hour ago rocketed to ~34 points within 30 minutes, then mysteriously stalled and got zero new upvotes from minutes 30 - 40. (I totally get that could happen to absolutely any post or purely by chance, but just seems sus).<p>Two other posts I noticed this happen to were <i>YouTube deletes LTT video for teaching people how to live without Google</i> [2] and <i>Google removed 'number of results' default setting for some users</i> [3].<p>Both got large numbers of upvotes in the first 30-90 minutes but either got slammed by downvotes or flags shortly afterward.<p>Perhaps something for @Dang to investigate.<p>[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41626035<p>[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41466182<p>[3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41466138
The one post got 79 comments in under an hour.<p>Probably tripped the overheated discussion detector.<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html">https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html</a><p><a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=overheated%20discussion%20detector&sort=byDate&type=comment" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...</a>
Easily testable hypothesis, at its simplest we could do:<p><pre><code> flagged ~ google_in_title + title_sentiment + upvotes + num_comments + some_time_var</code></pre>
One of those is flagged, the other two are not. (At least as of right now.) You cannot downvote posts, so that isn't a concern.<p>So sure, there may be some people flagging things... but if the post is not deserving of such treatment, other people typically vouch for it. And it is always possible that HN is doing something more behind the scenes, but odds are it is just the community doing their own self-moderation, with all the pros and cons that come with self-moderation.
Critical posts are often downvoted andor flagged to extinction. It's not unique to Google. If your post is not on board with the "SV moneymaking at all costs" mantra, ethics be danged, you'll likely find it disappear.