HN Explorer

Ask HN: A post can be [flagged] and [dead] but how?

4 points by audiodude ↗ HN
A post I was looking at got [flagged] apparently at some point while I was reading the article, and then was marked [dead] (he's dead Jim!) by the time I came back to comment on it.

Totally understand that the site needs moderation and all, but when I came to this page (the submission page) I didn't see any link to rules or guidelines. Though now that I look, they are linked on the homepage.

Still wondering what those tags mean and how they are applied. Is there any transparency in HN moderation?

7 comments

[ 3.7 ms ] story [ 27.6 ms ] thread
rvz
When enough users flag the post in question or a moderator does it themselves.

I can bet that ironically, this post (and mine) will end up [flagged][dead].

Please prove me wrong here.

greenyoda
"[flagged]" is only displayed if an article is flagged by users.

Articles killed by a moderator, or killed automatically (due to triggering the spam filter, or the user/domain being previously banned) only display "[dead]".

pope_meat
A submission can also just disappear completely.
[deleted]
(comment deleted)
the_only_law
As a note submissions from green accounts (not sure if this is universal) start dead.
greenyoda
Most of the many submissions I see from newly created accounts are not dead. As far as I know, the only accounts that are banned from the start are those that looked suspicious to the spam filter.
raihansaputra
AFAIK any user can flag a post/comment, and above a certain flag threshold the item will displayed as [dead]. A user with high point/karma (above 500 i think) can [vouch] for a [dead] item, but the item can be flagged to [dead] again, in which case it can't be vouched for.