[crazygringo]

I'm just confused as to why it's not even on the front page of HN.

I was expecting a story with 500 votes and 1000 comments. But it's just crickets. I scrolled through "new", there are a handful of stories with like 5-10 votes and 1-5 comments.

Where is the conversation around this? It's the top headline on the NYT, and here nobody's upvoting anything around it.

[an1sotropy]

It just shows what a cool rational crowd HN is; we're watching the situation rather than giving hot takes :)

[lupire]

4 posts with 250 total comments since yesterday:

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=last24h&page=0&prefix=fals...

[crazygringo]

Thanks! Interesting -- the top post (156 points, 102 comments, from 14 hours ago) is now ranked #191, you have to go to page 7. Stories don't normally sink that quickly.

In contrast, for example, currently "Artificial Intelligence: The Revolution Hasn’t Happened Yet (2018)" is 68 points from 13 hours ago with 79 comments... and is ranked #41, on the 2nd page. Similarly, "What Is Code? (2015)" is 104 points, 37 comments, 14 hours ago, and ranked #46. This is normal ranking.

So clearly the mods intentionally applied a penalty ranking here (happens all the time) because they don't want it staying on the front page, where it would be seen and keep attracting upvotes and comments. Honestly wouldn't have guessed they'd want to dissuade discussion on this story.

[r721]

It's user flags (they affect ranking) - apparently there is a clique of users which flagged each Musk/Twitter story.

See also this discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33366830

[crazygringo]

Oh wow, I had no idea flags worked as super-downvotes. I knew mods could downrank stories; didn't realize users could too. Thanks.

And thanks for that (indeed, flagged) link too -- glad I'm not the only one who noticed the glaring absence of this story.

[iaml]

I also didn’t know about this. There’s a problem with features like these - casual user doesn’t even realize it exists, but motivated actors can easily exploit it to correct the conversation.

[Jtsummers]

`flag` is visible on the submission list pages underneath the submission title. It's not hidden in any way. Next to it is also `hide` which is what most people should use for content they're not interested in but that may be appropriate for the site overall. `hide` is also not hidden.

[r721]

Here's a new related discussion with 157 comments at the moment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33371297

Ranking chart: https://hnrankings.info/33371297/

[incomingpain]

I doubt this reply will be allowed, I'll type it anyway.

Anyone pro-elon-twitter is being brigaded and isn't allowed to speak. I suspect the opposite is true as well. Therefore the subject isn't going to make the front page. It's just a battlefield of shooting at each other and no discussion can be had. Therefore HN downranks it.

It's remarkable to me to see this as well. I expected Hackers to see this positively.

Why do you think HN is so divided?

[altdataseller]

What is there to even talk about or discuss? A rich man bought a social network. How is that going to affect my life? Who cares (outside of Twitter employees)?

[crazygringo]

Well, if he unbans the former president it has the potential to literally change the outcome of the next presidential election.

Not saying either of those are going to happen, but the probability is large enough that it could actually wind up affecting your life quite a lot.

Not to mention this has a good chance of becoming the biggest free speech "test" of our lifetime (whether you think that's good or bad), which may affect moderation elsewhere as well as laws around them, which could easily directly you affect you as well.

Does that answer your questions? I mean, there's a reason it's the top front-page news story on the NY Times. Because of the democratic and free speech implications that could affect pretty much everyone.

[mattbrewsbytes]

Its a headline because of profits. The actual news is 1 sentence conveying "transaction completed". I wish traditional media would relegate stuff like this to their business section but they are profit seeking as well.

[aliswe]

a lot of people care. but at this point we're only speculating and this has been done previously in the numerous bouts of this purchase. I believe that is why there is no real banger post on HN rn.

[melagonster]

a social media represent one specific group of human, now their life depend on Musk.

[lesuorac]

IIUC, the lawsuit is still active [1]* so I'll wait until then to believe Musk actually wired the money.

* Afaik, the only motions about closing the lawsuit are the ones on Oct 6th which was opposed by Twitter. [1]: https://law.justia.com/cases/delaware/court-of-chancery/2022...

[the_only_law]

Thank fucking god, any HN thread about Elon musk devolves into collective psychosis.