Tell HN: Use news.ycombinator.com/active
23 points by lysace 5 hours ago | 25 comments
news.ycombinator.com/news (the default redirect from the root) is being subjected to user-triggered censorship. There is a lot that these days.

Here's how I trained my desktop browser (Chrome) to visit the /active URL when when I type "ne<RET">

1. Type "news.ycombinator.com/active" into the Chrome combo box and hit return.

2. Type "ne" into the Chrome combo box.

3. In the list of completions, click on the cross/delete icon to the right for the first few that aren't what you want.

4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you get the desired result.

  • jgrahamc 4 hours ago |
    What "user-triggered censorship" are you talking about?
    • lysace 4 hours ago |
      2-3 users with the proper standing pressing that flag link on a story.
      • jgrahamc 3 hours ago |
        So that would be me. I flag stories about US politics, for example.
        • verdverm 3 hours ago |
          this sounds more like GP believes one of the conspiracy theories about how moderation works on HN
          • lysace 3 hours ago |
            What conspiracy theory would that be?
            • verdverm 2 hours ago |
              the one where a handful of people can coordinate to shadowban / flag

              unclear if its the one where the official HN mods (there are only 2) believed to be the ones doing this

              the reality is that the official mods are largely hands off, when they do get involved, more often than not it is to reverse a community flagging action, which is where most moderation happens, at a large enough community scale that a handful of people cannot wield this much flagging power

              If you believe unjust flagging has happened, the best recourse is to email the HN mods, the are very friendly, helpful and fair

              • lysace 2 hours ago |
                > the one where a handful of people can coordinate to shadowban / flag

                I have done it myself, successfully. (well, minus the coordination. the point is that it only takes a very small number of people to flag something for it be nuked from the front page)

                Where did I claim that it was mods/some shadow cabal? Please read more carefully.

                • verdverm an hour ago |
                  How do you know it was only a small number of people for the cases you have witnessed?

                  As you stated, they reached the front page, which implies the opposite, that many people saw it and flagged it

        • lysace an hour ago |
          [flagged]
        • youngtaff an hour ago |
          Why?
      • striking 3 hours ago |
        If the story has enough votes before then, it is only downweighted, and only a bit at a time. Same with the flamewar detector, it just pulls stories down a bit. After the score is more than (I think?) 10 votes, it won't get entirely flagged unless mods decide it should.
  • al_borland 4 hours ago |
    A bookmark would also work.
    • lysace 4 hours ago |
      It didn't work for me. Can't hurt though.
  • Insanity 3 hours ago |
    What is /active?
    • lysace 3 hours ago |
      My understanding:

      It shows recent active topics, rather than upvoted/unflagged (not yet censored) topics.

      E.g. unlike /news, upvotes and flags are ignored in the ranking.

  • lysace 2 hours ago |
    ...And it's flagged, by maybe 2 people, and therefore censored.
    • verdverm an hour ago |
      more of your conspiracy theory

      the community deciding your post is below the quality we want here is not censorship

      • lysace an hour ago |
        I am deeply sorry that you are so fantastically uninformed of a site that you so obviously care a lot about. I can't imagine what kind of shock this might be to you.
      • funwithumbers 29 minutes ago |
        So when a comment supporting racially charged eugenics went unflagged it was because "the community" decided it was the quality you want? But this.
        • verdverm 17 minutes ago |
          not every submission has enough views to reach the flagging threshold

          do you have an example?

        • lysace a few seconds ago |
          Reminder: not all autists are smart.
  • sudobash1 2 hours ago |
    I think RSS feed reader users are also unaffected by flags. At least hnrss.org feed followers are. I haven't tried news.ycombinator.com/rss. But as long as the post hits the RSS feed before it is flagged, your reader can pick it up.

    Honestly, for me, most of the time I am not interested in the flagged posts, but if you are, RSS is another way to see them.

    • O1111OOO 2 hours ago |
      > I haven't tried news.ycombinator.com/rss. But as long as the post hits the RSS feed before it is flagged, your reader can pick it up.

      I can confirm.

  • duxup an hour ago |
    Active is by far the best way to read HN.
    • lysace 7 minutes ago |
      Yes. So little marketing crap and you also get to see so many more interesting discussions. It feels like HN ten years ago, but with more people. It's awesome.