[flowerlad]

I once posted a story about Google and privacy violations and it reached #1 spot on HN but after about 30 min at the top spot it suddenly moved to page 2. I got the impression that Google somehow has power over ranking here. It could be through reporting by Google employees. But the title of the post was edited too, along with the demotion.

[symplee]

It's almost as if the HN ranking algo should be open sourced, or at least viewable, with the ability for users to see who is flagging articles. Maybe even allowing a marketplace for drop in algo rankings/sorting.

There was a recent post showing the version control history of HN article tiles. That's one step in the right direction.

[democracy]

I think it was just not an "intellectually curious conversation"