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Ask HN: Why does HN censor content?

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Re: Ask HN: Why does HN censor content?

#11

Post by pcarolan »

detaro wrote: post #10
pcarolan wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I agree with you in principle, but in practice you'd need to exclude all the major outlets. That's a pretty big hole in media coverage.

In either case, flagging the post with a reason would be an educational benefit to the poster and the readers.

Re: Ask HN: Why does HN censor content?

#12

Post by detaro »

pcarolan wrote: post #11
detaro wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I agree with you in principle, but in practice you'd need to exclude all the major outlets. That's a pretty big hole in media coverage. In either case, flagging the post with a reason would be an educational benefit to the poster and the readers.

> I agree with you in principle, but in practice you'd need to exclude all the major outlets. That's a pretty big hole in media coverage.

WSJ is (as far as I know) the only major one that doesn't meet the "easy to circumvent" rule. And the "major outlets" predominantly post general news, which is less relevant to HN.

Re: Ask HN: Why does HN censor content?

#13

Post by imron »

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.

> a) doesn't seem like it should matter,

Every. single. thread. that links to a WSJ article has people complaining about the paywall, and people asking for the link to be changed to a different source.

As a result, I imagine there are plenty of people who flag WSJ articles by default, regardless of what way the web is going.

Re: Ask HN: Why does HN censor content?

#16

Post by detaro »

ximeng wrote: post #15

Would be helpful for transparency if it was possible to see a list of flagged articles somewhere.

You can at least turn on "showdead" in your profile, which doesn't give you one handy list of everything flagged, but flagged (and otherwise killed) submissions and comments are then still visible to you.

Re: Ask HN: Why does HN censor content?

#17

Post by franciscop »

rhapsodic wrote: post #5

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.

From what I've seen in HN and IMHO, a well expressed opinion on both sides is welcome. If you do have something to add on the other side of a topic those are way better on a comment. Then a civilized discussion happens many times. That is one of the great things of HN!

However, any article/comment insulting anyone or any political opinion has its well deserved downvotes. I would expect that on both left-wing and right-wing opinions. I've downvoted comments I agree with and upvoted comments I disagree with, based solely on the respect shown and the quality of them.

Note: there are of course always exceptions, my description above is when comparing HN to the rest of the web

Re: Ask HN: Why does HN censor content?

#18

Post by pcarolan »

imron wrote: post #13
pcarolan wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> a) doesn't seem like it should matter, Every. single. thread. that links to a WSJ article has people complaining about the paywall, and people asking for the link to be changed to a different source. As a result, I imagine there are plenty of people who flag WSJ articles by default, regardless of what way the web is going.

Thanks. That is annoying I just wish it were clearer why downvotes and flags were happening. It would probably prevent people like me from posting from thise sources in the future.

Re: Ask HN: Why does HN censor content?

#19

Post by ZanrielJames »

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..…

I'm down with discouraging paywall content. I've never flagged an article for it though. I get HN through the Feedly app, so I can't tell where the link goes until I hit it. It's always a nuiscance when it ends up at some paywall site.

On the other hand, those paywall sites do tend to be very high quality, with longform articles and more citations, more depth than most. I'll give them that.

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