[thomassmith65]

That may sometimes be the case, but the apparent reason for many, many flags here is that the content is unoriginal.

I've flagged plenty of comments that I agreed with on HN because they were dull and hackneyed.

[johnb231]

You are doing it wrong. That's where you should downvote, not flag.

Frivolous flagging - as you are doing - could eventually get your account privileges removed.

[thomassmith65]

I expressed that poorly. Just 'boring' alone doesn't warrant a flag.

There's a subjective element.

As an example of something I would flag: a one sentence 'hamas supporter!' or 'genocide denier!' accusation in reply to someone's thoughtful comment. If the same sentiment were expressed in a more original way, I might upvote.

Edit: In regard to news stories, sometimes a story breaks and the main and 'new' pages wind up a dozen links to it. At some point, I might flag that. I'm not sure if that's kosher, but there's little purpose in having users wade through identical articles. Maybe @tomhow or @dang can set me straight if they happen to read this.

[FirmwareBurner]

>but the apparent reason for many, many flags here is that the content is unoriginal.

Unoriginal to who? What's unoriginal to you might be original to someone else. So your justification for flagging only reinforces the groupthink argument even if you don't realize it.

[thomassmith65]

While it's all subjective, other social networks are literally full of memes. Memes are unpopular on HN.

Better to have groupthink that is hostile to groupthink than to have memes.

[FirmwareBurner]

I disagree. If a picture is worth more than a thousand words then a meme is worth more than a thousand groupthink slop comments.

[lupusreal]

I would explain why I think you're wrong, but I'm feeling lazy so please instead pretend that I just quoted you while posting a soyjack meme.

[FirmwareBurner]

If you're replying with a meme, then how could I be wrong? You'd be proving me right.

[lupusreal]

It's a sort of demonstration of why you're wrong.

[thomassmith65]

Let's say HN were full of edgy comments, memes and flame wars.

Some people would like that version of HN more, others less. I probably would close my account.

There might not be a version of this site that would please everybody.

[FirmwareBurner]

>Let's say HN were full of edgy comments, memes and flame wars.

Ackshually, edgy meme websites with no moderation don't have any flame wars since everyone there is on the same page.

Flame wars are in places like HN where moderation is heavily one sided and arbitrary, while pretending to be objective and inclusive.

[thomassmith65]

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