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by causality0 19 days ago
What I do know is that users should flag articles that they think don't belong on HN

If this is true then this statement should be added to the guidelines. Many a time I've seen a submission and thought "My god, this is the most moronic thing I've ever read in my life, nearly every single factual claim in this is wrong" but I don't flag it because "don't post utter drivel" is not in the guidelines.
1 comments
dang 19 days ago
What did you think flagging was for? (Genuine question)

It's true that we don't spell things out precisely, but that's because it's impossible to spell things out fully precisely. If you start, where do you stop?

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causality0 10 days ago
To flag things for removal that the powers that be, aka you, don't want on HN, as defined by the Guidelines. What I want on HN and what you want on HN aren't the same, so users like me have to go by the Guidelines on what is and isn't flaggable. For example, some types of submissions I utterly despise but don't violate the guidelines include "product launches that lie about being the first/only way to do something when this tool already exists", "obvious bullshit like a ten year old curing cancer", "this month's revolutionary new battery technology, ignore the fact it has so little real application we aren't even patenting it", and the classic "here is a five page article examining a question whose answer is not only incredibly obvious but can be answered in a single sentence".

I'd be overjoyed if you told us you wanted us to flag that stuff.

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frm88 19 days ago
What did you think flagging was for? (Genuine question)

Same as on other sites: Spam and/or bot, abuse and/or insults and other ad hominems and particularly the point in the guidelines where you go: Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity. and Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

Not that my flagging amounts to anything, there's so much domestic US politics articles from mainstream media on here that I often wonder whether I misunderstand the guidelines, but then, I'm just an Europoor /s

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