At HN if a single user flags an article there's no discussion to be had?

1 pointsducktypegoose7y ago4 comments

The thread in question featured an article about women bearing the emotional baggage of toxic masculinity. The author wrote the piece such that it read as a generalization to all men, which is obviously not the case and the author acknowledges this shortly into the piece. Anyway a single person took offense to the contents, presumably without reading the article, flagging the thread and it is locked and condemned to obscurity. Regardless of the validity of this person's reasoning, is his action grounds to deem there's nothing to further to be said about the contents of the article. Seems like a recipe for an echo-chamber, and in an industry notable for a particular hue of pill is this a bug or a feature?

4 comments

4 comments · 4 top-level

detaro7y ago

You're assuming an awful lot.

Flags on HN are not binary, but a score-like thing, and for killing a thread that already had collected some points it almost certainly took multiple.

(I haven't read the article in question, so I don't have an opinion if the flags are justified or not)

gus_massa7y ago

For reference: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19839665

Users can flag articles, with enough flags it get killed. You can vouch the article, enough vouches can unkill it.

If vouching is not enough, you can email the mods hn@ycombinator.com , they usually reply soon. (Remember to send a link to the dead thread, and a short explanation like the one you posted here. (But avoid the part "presumably without reading the article"))

mindcrime7y ago

One flag doesn't auto-kill an article. But frankly, that sounds pretty off-topic to me, and personally I'd have flagged it had I seen it. shrug

PaulHoule7y ago

I think it takes more than one flag.

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