This article (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16576569) was flagged and removed from the news pages.<p>Not even a flimsy excuse was given.<p>It is such an important topic - a person who ran a black site and destroyed the evidence before Congress could see it is now able to look at all our dick pics. This one shouldn't be shoved down the memory hole.<p>My comment on it is permanently compressed (even when the thread is opened in an entirely different browser) and has been stuck on 11 points. It's fucking weird, and I've never seen that on HN before.<p>As another commenter pointed out, informative and well sourced comments on the thread are flagged and grayed to oblivion. While most commenting has stopped since the page disappeared, there are a number of suspicious commenters still deflecting and inciting people in dumb directions.<p>Is this who you are HN?
Users flag stories that they don't think fit the site guidelines. That's all that happened here.<p>I get that you disagree. People disagree about this all the time, often strongly. I doubt there's a single story that every user agrees belongs on HN.<p>The only unusual thing in this case is the drama you've created about it. We can debate whether a CIA director nomination belongs on HN, but there's no question that the above submission and your comments are breaking the site guidelines. Those are at <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html</a>. Please read them and follow them when posting here. They're written the way they are for good reasons, based on over ten years of running this place.<p>No one's questioning the importance of major political stories, by the way. Of course they're important—much more important than most of what gets posted here. That's why we need flagging. Otherwise they would take over the site, and HN would be a completely different place.<p>HN's mandate is to gratify intellectual curiosity. Not all political stories are off topic, but the ones that only stir up outrage, however justifiably, and don't also gratify intellectual curiosity, are not a good fit.
I don't know why people flagged that link, but I'll tell you why I'm flagging this one: because you have to have flagging or crap takes over the site, and if you also allow protest posts from people upset about things that got flagged, then <i>those</i> take over the site.<p>I don't complain in Ask HN posts when stuff I upvoted is flagged off the frontpage. If you have a problem with moderation, email the moderators, like everyone else.
I think (but don't take my word for it) it's because it has nothing with tech/startups/whatever AND is related to politics/trump.<p>Back during the US election, HN became mostly news like this, and if I remember correctly it was decided it wasn't the purpose of HN to link to such news. It does not mean that these news are considered false, or not important, it does not mean censorship, it just means that HN is for a rather specific kind of stories.
In a word, yes.<p>Many of us (including me) find this matter interesting, but HN is designed to allow a tiny minority to flag content. Whether that's wise or not is another topic. It's always been HN's design.<p>You can't do much about other commenters, even if they are professional trolls paid by the post. Nonetheless, political matters (which this arguably is) are considered by many to be off-topic. That's why you're getting squelched.
> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.<p>From the guidelines. (<a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html</a>)
IMO HN should stick to tech. And even if there is an argument over between Python or GO, I am fine with it.<p>Politics shouldn't be discussed at all.<p>It has been understood that thing don't go as smooth as in a community like these. I personally think that the story about Trump and Broadcom or endless parade of bitcoin at $x price shouldn't be voted up at all. But, somehow people feel value in those. I tend to skip those stories.
> My comment on it is permanently compressed (even when the thread is opened in an entirely different browser) and has been stuck on 11 points.<p>You pointed an inconvenient fact about Obama and a lot of people are not going to like that. They could discuss it or flag and run away quickly. Flag and run away is too easy, so that's what ends up happening.<p>One time I criticized the obsession with Russians. A user went and start digging through my comments to determine that I speak Russian (which I do) and that meant proof I was a Russian shill, paid by Putin presumably to subvert Democracy right here on HN. Which is doubly creepy given that the Russian government deported and persecuted members of my family in the past.
Any topic mentioning negative aspects of the tech community related to race are also usually flag bombed to death. Mistreatment of women in the tech community still get flagged pretty regularly but they seem to be getting vouched for more regularly now.
Maybe it is off topic? But, on the other hand, this unflagged:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16576865" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16576865</a><p>Seems pretty arbitrary to me. That's the internet, I guess.
You have to understand that HN is an artificial environment, specifically curated to dictate the behavior and thought processes of its users. It is a safe space for nerds who don't want to think about scary things like politics. If it causes heated "uncivil" conversation, it's off-limits here. Especially if the conversation is about civics.
This type of behavior should have been expected from the day HN announced they weren't allowing political news on their site, just over a year ago.<p>It's pretty irresponsible: Primary news outlet for an industry that is already noticeably lacking in social and political responsibility decides to put up another set of blinders.<p>Low EQ Silicon Valley refuses to use its influence to affect political change in any meaningful way. Or even just political awareness. Ironic when you consider this political/social passiveness enables the same surveillance capitalism that this community is constantly complaining about.