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by untog 4777 days ago
Would love to see some evidence that backs any part of that up. I'll wait.

If Google has widespread rings of employees dedicated to flagging anti-Google stories on Hacker News, do you honestly think that not one single person would have exposed it by now? That all people involved- including ex employees, most likely- would never talk?
1 comments
CloudNine 4777 days ago
The more likely explanation is that Google fans and Microsoft haters are doign the flagging.

Even the other story about Microsoft's response is getting flagged and is far down the front page for its points.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5715889

What's your explanation for this constant flagging of Microsoft related stories or anti-Google ones?

Read through this thread for examples for many more stories getting flagged off the front page.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5716010

HN rankings graph showing abnormal and sudden dips.

http://hnrankings.info/5715168/

HN rankings graph showing low rank for a long time inspite of a lot of upvotes.

http://hnrankings.info/5715889/

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googleengineer2 4777 days ago
> The more likely explanation is that Google fans and Microsoft haters are doign the flagging.

As a Google employee: yes. We don't like this any more than anyone else does. We want to _earn_ positive feedback. The idea of Google employees flagging (or being told to flag!) stories about Google they don't like is laughable to me.

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recoiledsnake 4777 days ago
Agreed, I also think its just overzealous fans acting on their own. By the way, Microsoft's response is stuck on the 2nd page despite getting a ton of upvotes

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5715889

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ok_craig 4777 days ago
Maybe people who are actually just average HN users don't find those stories to really be worth reading as much as other stories.

Occam's razor, you know. Not everything is a conspiracy.

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recoiledsnake 4777 days ago
Note that the complaint is not about lack of upvotes, it's about people going out of their way to use their flagging powers which is meant only for spam links.
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ok_craig 4777 days ago
How do you tell if something's flagged?
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