The log is https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

The appeals process is to write to hn@ycombinator.com (Contact link in the footer.)

This leads to am interesting security question: how to achieve real transparency?

I mean HN could publish a ranking algorithm and claim that that is what they use. But then we still wouldn't know

(1) if that is really what's running in the background,

(2) if that is really receiving user inputs that lead to the observed outcome.

I'm guessing for most people here the programming assignment "create a fake log including these real inputs so that this story is suddenly dropped according to the ranking algorithm" isn't that hard.

I think that in the end, you end up trusting something. (Eg. Is the log fake or real?) IF that is so, you might as well design the system around a predetermined root of trust... here, the moderators.

Perhaps both are correct. You can automatically remove "content demeaning YC companies".

I have absolutely no idea, but I'd bet it's extremely little because I've never heard of anything. In any case, this strikes me as weak sauce. You can make up purity tests to accuse anybody of anything, and if you choose to read that blog post as signifying "support for the Chinese regime", that is entirely your fantasy.

In any case, this has zero effect on HN moderation. It had zero effect while YC China was being set up, zero effect while YC China was being wound down, and zero effect regardless of whatever "Chinese money" you're referring to, which you seem to know more about than I do. The only effect any of this has on HN moderation is people making up dark insinuations about it and posting them to HN. I expect that kind of thing from trolls but it's pretty weird to see you stoop to it.