Thanks for your reply. I'm relatively new to HN, so please excuse my ignorance if I'm misunderstanding how the site works, but it seems like currently there is significant feature overlap between downvoting and flagging, and in addition downvoting requires karma. This seems to incentivize flagging of submissions even if they are not "spam or off-topic" as described in the site guidelines.
I don't believe this was some kind of Microsoft-coordinated operation to censor criticism on HN, but I am surprised by how a few flags can silence such a popular submission.
I also do not consider the submission an "indignation post" or a "fanatic and paranoid dramatization" as it was referred to in a comment. I shared the link with the intent to make people aware of the removal of the repository from Trending, no more than that. I believe that GitHub is well within its rights to remove content from Trending, and I did not at any point complain or attempt to incite a flame war against Microsoft. My intention was simply to make people aware to allow them to make their own decisions about whether or not to continue using GitHub.
Regarding "over-promotion" of the story, I posted the original link shortly after I noticed the repository disappearing from Trending. I don't think anyone else posted it before, but if they did, I likely didn't see it because it was also flagged.
I don't believe this was some kind of Microsoft-coordinated operation to censor criticism on HN, but I am surprised by how a few flags can silence such a popular submission.
I also do not consider the submission an "indignation post" or a "fanatic and paranoid dramatization" as it was referred to in a comment. I shared the link with the intent to make people aware of the removal of the repository from Trending, no more than that. I believe that GitHub is well within its rights to remove content from Trending, and I did not at any point complain or attempt to incite a flame war against Microsoft. My intention was simply to make people aware to allow them to make their own decisions about whether or not to continue using GitHub.
Regarding "over-promotion" of the story, I posted the original link shortly after I noticed the repository disappearing from Trending. I don't think anyone else posted it before, but if they did, I likely didn't see it because it was also flagged.