[394549]

> Is that actually true? Or is there another nuance to the formula that determines what ends up on the front page?

I doubt it. I've noticed that China stories similar to this one are pretty consistently down-weighted once they hit the front page. They'll get knocked to the very bottom of the first page, or more usually the second page, regardless of how many votes they get.

It's a very subtle form of censorship. The post still exists, just with drastically reduced visibility.

[AnimalMuppet]

HN tends to want to avoid political flamewars. Articles about China tend to devolve into political flamewars. If HN has an algorithm that spots flamewars (and I think they do), that could explain some of the behavior you're seeing.

[394549]

> HN tends to want to avoid political flamewars. Articles about China tend to devolve into political flamewars. If HN has an algorithm that spots flamewars (and I think they do), that could explain some of the behavior you're seeing.

I don't think that explains it either. On most of the stories I'm talking about (including this one), there are little to no comments before the story is down-weighted. There's no flamewar for an algorithm to spot.

It really feels like topic-based censorship, and likely manual since it seems reactive to popularity.