It's more a question of the article. What we're looking for includes: is the article not too repetitive of recent discussions? does it contain significant new information? is there a reasonable chance that it could support a substantive, thoughtful discussion, or is it too flamebaity/provocative? that kind of thing.
Here's a subthread from yesterday where I went into this in depth: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42911011. Past explanations: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que....
If anyone has a question that isn't answered at those links, I'd be happy to take a crack at it.
(Of course, I could just be misunderstanding how flagging works on the site... maybe the state machine has to transition in order from regular -> [flagged][dead] -> [flagged] after vouching?)
You can also email moderators at hn@ycombintor.com to request unflagging. I do that occasionally, with mixed results. (I've come to know which are long shots, and typically concede the point, but at least make the attempt.)
FAQ: <https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html>
Guidelines: <https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>
Both are linked at the bottom of most HN pages.
If a post is flagkilled w/ comments disabled, then you can typically vouch.
