Earlier quoted context omitted.
Our role here is not "policing", it's largely janitorial work, and, if it wasn't already clear, the main thing I'm appealing for is for users who joined HN in c. 2007, and thus presumably valued the site's purpose and ethos from the beginning, to assume more of a stately demeanour, rather than creating more messes for us to clean up. You may prefer to email us to discuss this further rather than continue it in public…
I agree with your aspirations for this community. Which is why it is hard for me to understand how posts like [1] and [2] are allowed to persist. They are not in the spirit of HN which you are expressing here. The title of [1] alone would seem to immediately invite a deletion - it is obviously divisive, does not satisfy anyone's intellectual curiosity and is a clear invitation to a flame war. There is no reason to th…
First, both [1] and [2] spent no more than 32 minutes on the front page. [2] only spent 5 minutes on the front page. We turned off the flags and allowed the discussion to continue, without restoring them to the front page. Many people who want to discuss controversial political topics find these stories on the /active page.
> The title of [1] alone would seem to immediately invite a deletion
We never delete anything (except when the submitter/commenter asks us to, and it's something that had no replies and little attention). That's part of how we maintain trust. Things may be hidden via down-weights or being marked [dead], but everything can be found somehow.
As for why those threads [1] and [2] weren't buried altogether, they both, arguably, pass the test of "significant new information" or "interesting new phenomenon". Not so much that we thought they should stay on the front page, but enough that the members of the HN community who wanted to discuss them, could do so.
> I am skeptical that there are a lot of participants here, including me, who wouldn't have been unhappy if they could not participate in that discussion.
This is what can only be learned when you do our job. Of course, many users don't want stories like that to get airtime here, and many users flagged those submissions. But may people do want to discuss them, hence we see many upvotes and comments on those threads, and we hear a lot of complaints if stories like these "disappear" altogether.
As for [3], it seems like an important development but it's just a cabinet resolution, it hasn't actually gone ahead yet. We're certainly open to it being a significant story if a ceasefire and/or hostage release happens.
I hope this helps with the understanding of these things. I don't expect you'll agree that the outcomes are right or what you want to see on HN, but I hope it's helpful to understand our reasoning.
Edit: A final thought...
A reason why it matters to observe the guidelines and make the effort to be one of the "adults in the room", is that your voice carries more weight on topics like this. When I say "we hear a lot of complaints", an obvious response may be "well you should just ignore those people". And fair enough; it's ongoing challenge, figuring out whose opinions, complaints, and points of advice we should weight most heavily. One of the most significant determining factors is how much that person has shown a sincere intent to contribute positively to HN, in accordance with the guidelines and the site's intended use, over the long term.