I have seen a number of China-related thread reach HN's frontpage, with lots of comments, only to sink 10 pages within minutes. I believe that some users are gaming the auto-moderation tools by engaging in a downvote war in these threads to have them marked as flamebait and downranked. It doesn't have to be only paid trolls, just enough people unaware of the Tien An Men massacre and Mao's crimes.
Sadly this makes it look like HN is soft-censoring China-related threads...If I were a mod (and if I'm not wrong) I'd be very curious of the downvoting patterns in these cases.
Sadly this makes it look like HN is soft-censoring China-related threads...If I were a mod (and if I'm not wrong) I'd be very curious of the downvoting patterns in these cases.