[DanBC]

You say that flagging is only for spam. It isn't. Flagging is for things that don't belong on HN.

Some things are obviously not suitable for HN. Somethings are obviously suitable for HN.

The tricky area is things that start off being suitable for HN, but then quickly collapse into mindless bickering.

There are some words that act as triggers to poor discussion. I proudly flag threads full of bickering. You should too.

[brudgers]

"Flagging is for things that don't belong on HN."

Flagging is for flagging. Things that don't belong on HN are part of it. Redundant articles and bad discussions are others.

Even bad moods are a relevant reason to flag an article. HN is better if flagging is used to express strong emotion than toxic posting.

[DanBC]

Yes, I agree. I do flag when discussion is toxic.

[vaultboy21]

well then that's part of the problem..

i don't want to turn this into a battle of fanboys, but i have a hard time believing a post titled "Microsoft to Google: Remove something as it violates something.." would have been so heavily flagged or sparked such negative discussions..

what became apparent to me, from both reading the comments and seeing how the post was handled, was it did collapse into mindless bickering, but mainly because people rushed to 'defend' the company they feel more loyal to..

all i'm saying is flagging shouldn't be used as a weapon in such bickering.

[vaultboy21]

from: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link.