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Ask HN: Bias in flagging stories?

10 points| curtisblaine | 7 years ago | reply

So, today I posted this NYT article regarding a settlement Asia Argento paid to an underage boy who accused her of rape in order to avoid trial: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17798703

The post has been flagged and it's not possible to comment it anymore.

I'm not familiar on how HN flagging works; I understand it's been flagged by an user for some reason and that flagging prevents it to reach the frontpage or to discuss the story further. I also guess it's been flagged because it's not in line with the usual content you might find in HN.

That would be OK, but why a number of, let's say, specular stories (the ones where Argento accused Hollywood producer Harwey Weinstein have not been flagged and some of them reached the front page? (e.g.: https://hn.algolia.com/?query=harwey%20weinsten&sort=byPopularity&prefix=false&page=0&dateRange=all&type=story).

I just joined HN last year and I'm not incredibly familiar with its internal mechanics. Is there an implicit bias regarding what can and what can not be posted? Did the Weinstein stories get to the top because HN "likes" their narrative more than Argento's story? Not making any accusations, of course, this is just to understand. Happy to engage in respectful discussion.

Thanks, Curtis.

22 comments

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[+] pwg|7 years ago|reply
I did not see the story, therefore I had no 'flagging' input into it, but based upon the "guidelines": https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and your description of the story above, I'd bet that a few users felt it fell into this category:

Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, ... If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

[+] curtisblaine|7 years ago|reply
But the Weinstein stories have been not flagged. That's why I ask: is there an implicit bias? Should one only post stories that support a certain narrative?
[+] forgottenpass|7 years ago|reply
The HN internals are kept a bit opaque. Some users can flag, and then IIRC it can be "vouch"-ed for once, where it might be re-flagged again. Upvotes may factor in. Mods will occasionally override manually. Luck of the draw is always a factor.

I'd say that the bias around the Weinstein stories were that they were simply very hot in the mainstream, and that caused otherwise off-topic posts to catch some traction here.

[+] curtisblaine|7 years ago|reply
To be fair, the linked story was doing quite well, in terms of upvotes, until someone flagged it repeatedly.
[+] curtisblaine|7 years ago|reply
Edit: it seems the story has been unflagged. I'm kinda confused in how the whole thing works.
[+] mtmail|7 years ago|reply
I now flagged it, 21 upvotes, and it went into flagged mode again. No idea how many flags cancel out upvotes or how the algorithm really works.

In my opinion that's entertainment news, not hackernews material. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html "Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon."

Some topics, scandals, even catastrophes are usually completely ignored on HN. The idea is that other websites, the main stream media and large newspaper, sufficiently cover it.

I'm not arguing against the story itself. I've read it in the newspaper this morning. Just my expectation when opening HN is not to see/discuss a celebrity paying off a rape victim, regardless the circumstances that led to act. Actually I'm surprised the Weinstein story made the frontpage.

[+] personjerry|7 years ago|reply
I vouched it, that's why it was unflagged. I thought it was an interesting other perspective, regardless of which "side" you believe.