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“Julian Assange’s internet link has been intentionally severed”

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Re: “Julian Assange’s internet link has been intentionally severed”

#11

Post by benlambert »

misja111 wrote: post #9

I was reading this post when it was still number 11 on the front page, went for lunch and came back, and now it is number 67 on page 3 ... Does anybody know why this happened? During this last hour the post went from 91 to 140 points so it's not like it wasn't popular.

This story is now 7 hours old with 164 points, but on page 5.

I count 6 stories on the front page that are older than this with less points, e.g:

  9. Virus stole poison genes from black widow spider (bbc.com)
     155 points by kawera 10 hours ago | hide | 25 comments
Is HN censoring?

Re: “Julian Assange’s internet link has been intentionally severed”

#12

Post by skrowl »

JorgeGT wrote: post #10
misja111 wrote: post #9

I was reading this post when it was still number 11 on the front page, went for lunch and came back, and now it is number 67 on page 3 ... Does anybody know why this happened? During this last hour the post went from 91 to 140 points so it's not like it wasn't popular.

It is now in number 110 in page 4, among much older stories.

I came here looking for it and had to search for "assage" past 24 hours to find it. Something is up. There are things on the front page that are older with less votes.

Re: “Julian Assange’s internet link has been intentionally severed”

#13

Post by dragonwriter »

benlambert wrote: post #11
misja111 wrote: post #9

I was reading this post when it was still number 11 on the front page, went for lunch and came back, and now it is number 67 on page 3 ... Does anybody know why this happened? During this last hour the post went from 91 to 140 points so it's not like it wasn't popular.

This story is now 7 hours old with 164 points, but on page 5. I count 6 stories on the front page that are older than this with less points, e.g: 9. Virus stole poison genes from black widow spider (bbc.com) 155 points by kawera 10 hours ago | hide | 25 comments Is HN censoring?

It's political, so it's probably being flagged and demoted for that reason.

It's probably triggering the flamewar detector, and getting demoted for that reason.

There's probably no need for active censorship by the mods to explain the observed results.

Re: “Julian Assange’s internet link has been intentionally severed”

#14

Post by glastra »

misja111 wrote: post #9

I was reading this post when it was still number 11 on the front page, went for lunch and came back, and now it is number 67 on page 3 ... Does anybody know why this happened? During this last hour the post went from 91 to 140 points so it's not like it wasn't popular.

Same thing happened with another submission on the same story: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12724507

Re: “Julian Assange’s internet link has been intentionally severed”

#15

Post by benlambert »

dragonwriter wrote: post #13
benlambert wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This story is now 7 hours old with 164 points, but on page 5. I count 6 stories on the front page that are older than this with less points, e.g: 9. Virus stole poison genes from black widow spider (bbc.com) 155 points by kawera 10 hours ago | hide | 25 comments Is HN censoring?

It's political, so it's probably being flagged and demoted for that reason. It's probably triggering the flamewar detector, and getting demoted for that reason. There's probably no need for active censorship by the mods to explain the observed results.

There was another submission that was on the front page half an hour ago with only a few comments (so no flamewar) and appears to have been directly removed by a mod: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12724507

Re: “Julian Assange’s internet link has been intentionally severed”

#16

Post by sflicht »

dragonwriter wrote: post #13
benlambert wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This story is now 7 hours old with 164 points, but on page 5. I count 6 stories on the front page that are older than this with less points, e.g: 9. Virus stole poison genes from black widow spider (bbc.com) 155 points by kawera 10 hours ago | hide | 25 comments Is HN censoring?

It's political, so it's probably being flagged and demoted for that reason. It's probably triggering the flamewar detector, and getting demoted for that reason. There's probably no need for active censorship by the mods to explain the observed results.

Of course the existing moderation policy constitutes a background of censorship, so your claims should be evaluated within that contest.

Re: “Julian Assange’s internet link has been intentionally severed”

#17

Post by saalweachter »

misja111 wrote: post #9

I was reading this post when it was still number 11 on the front page, went for lunch and came back, and now it is number 67 on page 3 ... Does anybody know why this happened? During this last hour the post went from 91 to 140 points so it's not like it wasn't popular.

IIRC HN threads have historically gotten dinged for having a large number of comments, relative to their upvotes. This is supposed to dampen threads that are just flame-bait without being particularly interesting.

So posting 27 comments about "why is this thread not higher up???" just makes the problem worse :-)

Re: “Julian Assange’s internet link has been intentionally severed”

#18

Post by dragonwriter »

sflicht wrote: post #16
dragonwriter wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's political, so it's probably being flagged and demoted for that reason. It's probably triggering the flamewar detector, and getting demoted for that reason. There's probably no need for active censorship by the mods to explain the observed results.

Of course the existing moderation policy constitutes a background of censorship, so your claims should be evaluated within that contest.

In the sense that all systems of deciding what to publish and how are censorship, sure.

Re: “Julian Assange’s internet link has been intentionally severed”

#19

Post by EdHominem »

dragonwriter wrote: post #13
benlambert wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This story is now 7 hours old with 164 points, but on page 5. I count 6 stories on the front page that are older than this with less points, e.g: 9. Virus stole poison genes from black widow spider (bbc.com) 155 points by kawera 10 hours ago | hide | 25 comments Is HN censoring?

It's political, so it's probably being flagged and demoted for that reason. It's probably triggering the flamewar detector, and getting demoted for that reason. There's probably no need for active censorship by the mods to explain the observed results.

There's no read for "real" censorship if your algorithms take care of all the threads you'd find objectionable.

Re: “Julian Assange’s internet link has been intentionally severed”

#20

Post by ZoeZoeBee »

saalweachter wrote: post #17
misja111 wrote: post #9

I was reading this post when it was still number 11 on the front page, went for lunch and came back, and now it is number 67 on page 3 ... Does anybody know why this happened? During this last hour the post went from 91 to 140 points so it's not like it wasn't popular.

IIRC HN threads have historically gotten dinged for having a large number of comments, relative to their upvotes. This is supposed to dampen threads that are just flame-bait without being particularly interesting. So posting 27 comments about "why is this thread not higher up???" just makes the problem worse :-)

It has more up votes than comments, and has a ratio quite common with many of the existing front page stories...
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