[LexiMax]

> Diluting the tech focus here with average mainstream politics attracts the wrong crowd and adds little of value.

Flagged stories are some of the most active stories on HN. If the goal is to act as a filter on the kinds of acceptable topics to discuss or the kinds of people to attract to HN, it's a failed one, because the "wrong crowd" is still being attracted and commenting on those stories.

If anything, I see far and away the most amount of bad faith flagging/downvoting and throwaways on those threads. Are people getting their flagging privileges taken away? Are the throwaway's main accounts being banned? Who knows...

[iamnothere]

The wrong crowd includes organized astroturf groups, bots, trolls, and political junkies who all probably have feeds set up looking for those posts. Can’t escape it anywhere on the internet where general political posts are allowed.

At least the flagging keeps the noise off the front page and discourages an excessive number of general political/news posts.

[LexiMax]

> Can’t escape it anywhere on the internet where general political posts are allowed.

You actually can. I have political discussions with people who disagree with me in many social spaces.

What you can't do is have there be zero friction to join the conversation and be overly reliant on user moderation tools to do the hard work of moderation for you.