Ask HN: Why is my post flagged?

[bnormative]

I submitted a simple ask post, which was not spam or fraudulent.

It was flag within 3 minutes.

Ask HN: Who Is Firing? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41436298

can anyone guess why it was flagged?

[mindcrime]

Flags are submitted on posts by individuals for reasons that are of their own choosing.[1] If enough users flag a story, it goes into the [dead][flagged] state you see. But unless the users who flagged it choose to chime in, there's no real way to be sure why it was flagged.

That said, if I had to guess, I'd say @Udo nailed it. The topic just doesn't seem like something that is going to lead to high-quality and interesting discussion. I mean, I wouldn't have flagged it myself (I'm pretty laissez-faire on that kind of thing) but I can see why others might have.

[1]: within reason. I don't know if it's been explicitly stated or not, but I suspect that if a user kept flagging stories for no good reason, they would lose their ability to flag, or have some other consequences. But that's just a guess, I have no insider knowledge or anything.

[gus_massa]

I agree. Moreover, monthly semi-repetitive post usually don't get traction except the first time. Looking at https://hn.algolia.com/?query=Ask%20HN%3A%20Who%20Is%20Firin... I see one successful post per year. I wouldn't have flagged it, but I don't expect it to get traction.

[Udo]

My guess would be that it was flagged because the subject invites unproductive controversy and low quality discussion.

[bell-cot]

Publicly announcing that someone will be fire is very unprofessional, or an extreme measure. And (IANAL) publicly talking about details is profoundly unwise.

Add things up - your item requesting that people violate a number of social taboos.