[4oo4]

Unlike other stories critical of Sam Altman, it's very suspicious the way this is so quickly and systematically downvoted and flagged every single time it's posted.

This happened the last time this was posted too. Sam Altman deserves the right to defend himself in court as does Ann to tell her story (who personally I believe).

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37785072

The good news is that with the lawsuit it will be in the news more and much harder to silence, maybe at some point we can have a proper discussion about it on HN without people (or more likely bots) trying to memoryhole it every single time.

[leotravis10]

Amen, hopefully someday we can get a proper civil discussion on this. Shame on the HN mods and higher ups really for trying to censor this.

[dang]

The mods haven't done anything. This story is being flagged by users and, after looking at the data, I believe it's a genuine community response. (Edit: here's comment I just ran across, which expresses some of this response: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42638174).

More here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42637131

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42637022

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42632335

[spockswrench]

You have a vested interest to protect Sam Altman and sure enough this story is not allowed on the front page. This site has many forms of censorship built in, yet you always act with plausible deniability, blaming "the users" or worse yet "the algorithm" (as if that's not fully in your control). I hope you know that most people aren't buying it.

[dang]

Not blaming, just explaining what is happening. You're of course free to believe what you wish, but I think you're wrong about "most people". The bulk of the community is satisfied with what we're doing. How do I know that? Because if it weren't the case, we'd never hear the end of it. I've been on the wrong side of the community in the past, I know what that's like, and this isn't it. Being on the wrong side of the community is such a painful experience that striving to avoid that is basically the principle that drives how we operate HN.

As for Sam: this site has hosted countless negativity fests about Sam (as well as other celebrities people love to post about). This story is different, and the way we're handling it would be the same if you replaced his name with anyone else's.

[spockswrench]

No, that's clearly wrong. These posts all have tons of upvotes (without even being allowed to stay on the front page!), the community wants them.

Edit: You can downvote my comments and censor my account all you want. I learned today that to engage with this site one must take an oppositional stance. I'll just make a new account since this one is clearly compromised. I encourage everyone to do the same. Hell make 10 every time you see you're censored.

[dang]

That is a misunderstanding. Community opinion isn't just expressed in upvotes. It's expressed in upvotes and flags. Countless stories make the front page, only to be flagged off it by other users. This happens many times a day.

I didn't downvote you, and indeed no one on HN (including me) can downvote a direct reply to them.

[krapp]

I wouldn't even blame it on the mods and higher ups. There are enough people here invested in Sam Altman either through YC or AI that mutually aligned interests alone will cause a story like this to get squashed, every time. No conspiracy needed.

And that doesn't even take into account the number of people who consider all discussions of this kind to be categorically off topic, and would flag it on principle regardless of the context.

[4oo4]

If you do a search for the word rape, there are tons of discussions about it, so it's definitely not categorically off topic. I'm going to email [e-mail] per the FAQ since the way this keeps happening feels abusive and against the spirit of HN.

[krapp]

As far as I know, flags come from the community, not the mods. Hacker News is designed so that it doesn't even take many flags to affect a thread.

You can complain to the mods all you like but there's nothing you can do about the zeitgeist. The mods also won't change their own policies.

[dang]

Flags mostly come from the community; sometimes from the mods. When the post is a submission (as opposed to a comment), they almost always come from the community.