HACKER Q&A
📣 runninganyways

Is there anything you can do if your comment is unfairly flagged?


I recently had a comment flagged that by no means should have been. This was on the tail end of a lot of downvotes. I thought the HN community was more adult-like but I keep getting massive ignorant hate from people who can downvote.

I realize complaining about getting downvoted just gets you downvoted more but also I really don't want to participate in a discussion forum like that anyways.

So can I appeal a flagged comment or am I just to be subjected to the childishness of someone who has received 500 upvotes?

  👤 greenyoda Accepted Answer ✓
The only flagged comment of yours that I could find is this one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21787628

It may have been flagged for its unfriendly tone - sounds almost like you want to pick a fight with the person you replied to.

Here's a relevant section of the HN Guidelines (see link at bottom of page):

> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive. Have curious conversation; don't cross-examine.

I wouldn't have flagged it myself (my threshold for flagging is a little bit higher), but I understand why someone would have.

Also, please re-read the post you just wrote. Accusing the entire community of being childish and ignorant while complaining about being flagged for a violation of the guidelines isn't going to get you any sympathy (and is going to get you flagged).

👤 lioeters
Sorry to hear about your experience. I've had a couple of times where a comment attracted a wave of downvotes seemingly undeserved, and it's not a good feeling. I've also seen comments that express unpopular opinions tend to get hit hard, as a way of showing disagreement (which is OK by site policy).

In the end, much of it's up to the whims of the crowd, and shouldn't be taken personally. I'd say, see it as interacting with a vast distributed network of (more or less) intelligent agents.

With your comments as inputs, the system often behaves unpredictably - but by studying the somewhat chaotic results, you can find patterns/trends to achieve (sometimes) the result we all want, which is intellectually stimulating discussion.