[VanPossum]

Since we're on the topic of underhanded media manipulation, I'll just leave this here:

I saw this entry skyrocket its way to position #2 on the front page, and within minutes, despite have 130+ upvotes and 30+ comments within 1 hour it is now suddenly 11 pages down, at position 340 (as of this post). As you can see this submission does not have any remark from mods and is not marked "[Flagged]" or anything...

[radcon]

HN is no different from every other internet forum: Heavily moderated with very little transparency -- the perfect recipe for filter bubbles and groupthink.

The moderators can even apply permanent penalties to individual users (your comments will sink to the bottom where few will see them) without notice or justification. It's sort of like a shadow-ban but your comments are still visible.

[pas]

Comments criticising China tend to get downvoted. Then slowly as the watchful eye of PRC moves to newer threads less zealous minds prevail and tip the scales back.

[trevyn]

I had the front page open in a slightly old browser window with this post at #1, and specifically opened a new window before proceeding in case this exact situation happened.

A comment by mods would be appreciated.

[wybiral]

I noticed that too. Hit refresh and it was magically gone from the front page with 139 points while older submissions with fewer points remained.