by cmrivers on 12/6/14, 3:28 PM with 6 comments
by DanBC on 12/6/14, 6:19 PM
> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
See also the very clear guidance in the welcome guidelines:
> A crap link is one that's only superficially interesting. Stories on HN don't have to be about hacking, because good hackers aren't only interested in hacking, but they do have to be deeply interesting.
> What does "deeply interesting" mean? It means stuff that teaches you about the world. A story about a robbery, for example, would probably not be deeply interesting. But if this robbery was a sign of some bigger, underlying trend, then perhaps it could be.
> The worst thing to post or upvote is something that's intensely but shallowly interesting. Gossip about famous people, funny or cute pictures or videos, partisan political articles, etc. If you let that sort of thing onto a news site, it will push aside the deeply interesting stuff, which tends to be quieter.
What's the point of posting "police should not murder citizens" posts? Anyone who isn't a vile human being agrees; and those posts always drag out the vile human beings who will blame the minor criminal who gets murdered by police.
There is no constructive discussion to be had from them. See also discussions about Israel / Palestine; abortion; gun control; etc.
Having said all that I didn't see the link and if you feel it was unfairly flagged you should email hn and ask them to tweak it. I think they do un-flag-kill some stories that they think should be here and I know of at least one that was about diversity stuff.
by hackerjam on 12/6/14, 6:05 PM
only recently have i stepped up to the plate and started posting links to articles i come across in my daily news dredge and if and when appropriate, made comments on news items that piqued my interest.
but it is in search of your kind of posts that i come to a news aggregation site like hn because i do want to see what the comments are -- they act like a reality check -- so please, don't despair. i am sure there are a lot of people like me who check the "new" section and are able to discover what you have posted before it gets locked. and now you have me thinking that probably most of the stuff i post, get nixed too. cuz only once did i notice something i posted show up in the first 5 pages, but it like #60 and it only got that far because the article was being trashed.
so you go me wondering if i should just go back to being a free-rider. posting and commenting on hn takes a lot of time and effort, probably better spent elsewhere.
by dragonwriter on 12/6/14, 8:06 PM
Other than the fact that the author clearly doesn't like that the one particular story was flag killed, there's no substance and just a lot of nonspecific complaint and emotional language.
That's not to say that I don't think that HN tends to focus on stories of interest to white upper middle class to upper class people with deep interest in technology and/or the tech industry, but I don't see the article offered here as offering anything constructive with regard to tthat.
by bob917 on 12/8/14, 6:42 PM