I'm all for keeping the discourse on HackerNews tight, but lately I see dozens of posts a day about serious issues for all of us being flagged.<p>The one that sent me over the edge was this:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42917806<p>A US Bill proposed that could represent jail time for anyone importing AI software/models from China OR exporting AI software/models TO China.<p>This seemed huge to me, and I genuinely wanted to read the discussion. But when I went back to the post, it had been flagged.<p>It seems to me there is a concerted effort to stop speech related to certain topics on HackerNews lately.<p>Has anyone else noticed this?
> The one that sent me over the edge was this: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42917806">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42917806</a><p>It's a longstanding principle on HN that proposed bills aren't really on topic unless there's something to prove otherwise. The reason is simple: most proposed bills never amount to anything. (And oftentimes are political stunts.)<p><a href="https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20bills%20propos&sort=byDate&type=comment" rel="nofollow">https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...</a><p>If attempts to ban DeepSeek in the US actually get anywhere, you can be sure there will be plenty of discussion on HN.
It's been that way for about half a year now. There's a growing list of topics that will never make the front page anymore.<p>For the first time in over a decade, I've turned on show dead, skip the front page and go directly to the new feed for my tech news.
> The one that sent me over the edge was this: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42917806">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42917806</a> [GOP bill proposes 20 years in jail for anyone who downloads a Chinese AI models]<p>The same story was discussed in "Proposed bill to make it a crime to download DeepSeek in the US" <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42904838">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42904838</a> 12 hours earlier. Some users flag when they see a comment "previously <link>" because it's not easy to mark duplicates. I'm not saying it's a good model.
Definitely. One of the biggest moments of our lifetimes, directly affecting almost every person on this message board, involving high profile “tech” people, curiously absent from any discussion on the main page.<p>I don’t buy the “ we don’t talk politics here ” argument. This directly intersects the tech world on multiple levels
I think it is combination of two factors.<p>1. A subset of HN readers are uninterested in items outside a narrow range of topics and wish to keep HN focused instead of becoming like other forums that grew to cater to broader audiences.<p>2. Forum moderators may have a financial incentive to ensure that certain topics are discussed more often and other topics are discussed less often.
The one that "sent you over the edge" is a dupe. Of which there is an ongoing thread, that's not even flagged.<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42904838">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42904838</a><p>Yes there been a lot of flagged Musk/Trump-related posts lately, partly due to an aversion of heavily political current events stories, but also there's been a number of discussions with lots of eyeballs, hundreds of upvotes and comments before getting flagged. And that's amidst ten different submissions of the same story about the treasury, USAID, CDC, tariffs, whatever. So it's not nothing. There is some engagement, the discussion maybe then devolved and that's it. Stuff moves fast round here, and there's been a particularly heavy influx of headlines lately, but amidst any influx of attempt to flag things to hell, all is not lost, there's still engagement and sharing.
I think a substantial % just don't want to see any posts about politics or even politics adjacent stuff and flag them. I don't blame the impulse, political discussion is death to forums.
Earlier today dang answered more or less the same question you're asking:
<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42923649">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42923649</a>
100%, seems like a clear effort to bury anything critical or even just concerned about the actions of Musk, Altman, and the other tech billionaires in their relationship with the new administration. I saw this article also got flagged and there is nothing objectionable about it: <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-government-young-engineers/" rel="nofollow">https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-government-young-engin...</a>
See also<p><i>Ask HN: What's with flagging articles criticizing Musk?</i><p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42907426">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42907426</a>
There are more people on HN that don't like politics getting into their tech news than pro-Trump/Elon fanboys.<p>The core issue is that flagging is so much more powerful than upvotes. There isn't a good way to change that without causing other issues.
Flagging? "Power corrupts"<p>Before this thread is flagged, let me repost:<p>I think that what the world's richest tech billionaire is doing to the U.S. tech infrastructure with tech is highly relevant here.
We DO have the ambivalent word "hacker" in the site name.<p>Here's a thread with my comment on "what technology wants", not what Bond Villain sociopaths want.<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42589978">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42589978</a>