HN Explorer

Ask HN: How does post banning work on HN?

4 points by futureishere ↗ HN
Hello everyone, I'm quite new to the HN community, so please forgive me if I'm doing something wrong, or if there's a better way to ask this question. Just please let me know!

So, I had submitted this post this morning under Show HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15277484 and it was gaining traction, was on the front page for quite some time, and then it suddenly vanished from trending/new/show pages.

Due to the sudden disappearance, I can't believe it was because of the downvotes. I think most probably one of the mods(?) removed it for some reason.

Was it done because the post involved Paul Graham? Is there a way I can contact the mods about the reason(or they can contact me)? I'd definitely want to know about any mistakes that I had made, even unintentionally, so that I don't repeat them in the future! Thanks :-)

2 comments

[ 2.4 ms ] story [ 15.5 ms ] thread
brudgers
The knowledgeable answers can only come from the moderators. Try using the |contact| link at the bottom of the page.
grzm
You might find the guidelines and FAQ useful as well:

* https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

* https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html

The FAQ includes information about ranking and flagging:

> How are stories ranked?

> The basic algorithm divides points by a power of the time since a story was submitted. Comments in comment threads are ranked the same way.

> Other factors affecting rank include user flags, anti-abuse software, software which downweights overheated discussions, and moderator intervention.

Also, the guidelines request (as 'brudgers points out):

> Please don't post on HN to ask or tell us something. Instead, please send it to hn@ycombinator.com.

I'd speculate that it was just the normal churn. 'dang and 'sctb have commented many times that they specifically take care on posts that reference YC in some way.