Ask HN: Why does HN censor content?

#1

Post by pcarolan » Sun, Jul 02, 2017, 1:35 PM UTC

I recently submitted a link to HN:

    Seattle Workers Pay for the Minimum Wage (wsj.com)

It was from a reputable source, the WSJ, and the study it references was conducted by the University of Washington. The article was upvoted quite a few times but then flagged and locked for comments. Can someone tell me the reasoning behind HN censoring this article?

Re: Ask HN: Why does HN censor content?

#2

Post by anonymousiam » Sun, Jul 02, 2017, 1:39 PM UTC

I noticed that article disappear just as I tried to promote it. HN moderators have previously expressed support for universal income so it's probably a case of reality interfering with their world view. Thus they deny reality to maintain their world view.

Re: Ask HN: Why does HN censor content?

#3

Post by detaro » Sun, Jul 02, 2017, 1:41 PM UTC

[Flagged] is done by user flags, and while I of course can't know why other users flagged something, here are possible reasons:

a) WSJ has a paywall where the Google workaround often doesn't work

b) political topics always are at risk, especially if repeated:

c) That there have been 5 submissions with together >300 comments on that topic in the last week: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=seattle+Minimum+Wage&sort=byDa... , which seem to discuss the same study, making your submission clearly a duplicate (at least from what I can see from the text teaser, thanks to a) I can't actually read the full content)

Re: Ask HN: Why does HN censor content?

#4

Post by pcarolan » Sun, Jul 02, 2017, 1:41 PM UTC

So this doesn't come off as pithy, I'd like to explain that the reason I submitted this article to HN is that 1) a lot of startups hire minimum wage workers and will be affected by these policies and 2) I wanted to get the HN crowd's $.02 on the debate. It is clearly not clear cut as to the general or specific effects implementing a minimum wage would have, but I was hoping the debate would bring out the nuance. This seemed like a good study with findings contradictory to my original theory of what would happen, in other words a good scientific debate.

Re: Ask HN: Why does HN censor content?

#5

Post by rhapsodic » Sun, Jul 02, 2017, 1:41 PM UTC

It's anyone's guess. My guess, based on what I've seen, is that things that stories that serve to debunk left-wing shibboleths are hammered with flags. And then either a moderator or built-in rules kill the submission.

Re: Ask HN: Why does HN censor content?

#6

Post by DanBC » Sun, Jul 02, 2017, 1:42 PM UTC

[flagged] means users flagged it.

Some people have started flagging anything from WSJ because of the paywall.

This topic has been previously discussed on HN.

Re: Ask HN: Why does HN censor content?

#7

Post by pcarolan » Sun, Jul 02, 2017, 1:44 PM UTC

detaro wrote: post #3

[Flagged] is done by user flags, and while I of course can't know why other users flagged something, here are possible reasons: a) WSJ has a paywall where the Google workaround often doesn't work b) political topics always are at risk, especially if repeated: c) That there have been 5 submissions with together >300 comments on that topic in the last week: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=seattle+Minimum+Wage&sort=byDa..…

Thanks,

a) doesn't seem like it should matter, that's the way the web is going. b) i saw this article as more scientific than political. This is the closest thing you get to a controlled experiment in economics research. c) Fair. I didn't catch that this had been posted. I did a simple search with the 'past' link and didn't find anything.It seems like a flagging should require a rationale from the flagger.

Re: Ask HN: Why does HN censor content?

#8

Post by lxrbst » Sun, Jul 02, 2017, 1:46 PM UTC

paywall?

Re: Ask HN: Why does HN censor content?

#9

Post by pliny » Sun, Jul 02, 2017, 1:47 PM UTC

pcarolan wrote: post #7

detaro wrote: post #3

[Flagged] is done by user flags, and while I of course can't know why other users flagged something, here are possible reasons: a) WSJ has a paywall where the Google workaround often doesn't work b) political topics always are at risk, especially if repeated: c) That there have been 5 submissions with together >300 comments on that topic in the last week: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=seattle+Minimum+Wage&sort=byDa..…

Thanks, a) doesn't seem like it should matter, that's the way the web is going. b) i saw this article as more scientific than political. This is the closest thing you get to a controlled experiment in economics research. c) Fair. I didn't catch that this had been posted. I did a simple search with the 'past' link and didn't find anything.It seems like a flagging should require a rationale from the flagger.

from the FAQ[1]:

>Are paywalls ok?

>It's ok to post stories from sites with paywalls that have workarounds.

The implication is that paywalls without workarounds (like WSJ) aren't OK.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

Re: Ask HN: Why does HN censor content?

#10

Post by detaro » Sun, Jul 02, 2017, 1:48 PM UTC

pcarolan wrote: post #7

detaro wrote: post #3

[Flagged] is done by user flags, and while I of course can't know why other users flagged something, here are possible reasons: a) WSJ has a paywall where the Google workaround often doesn't work b) political topics always are at risk, especially if repeated: c) That there have been 5 submissions with together >300 comments on that topic in the last week: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=seattle+Minimum+Wage&sort=byDa..…

Thanks, a) doesn't seem like it should matter, that's the way the web is going. b) i saw this article as more scientific than political. This is the closest thing you get to a controlled experiment in economics research. c) Fair. I didn't catch that this had been posted. I did a simple search with the 'past' link and didn't find anything.It seems like a flagging should require a rationale from the flagger.

For a link aggregator, where people discuss the content of links, of course it matters if people can actually read the content of the submission! The mods previously have stated that easy workarounds like google search are tolerated, but that fails with WSJ and I know that not all users agree on that.