Controversial posts are automatically downranked, where controversial means lots of upvote/downvote wars over comments on the post.
If people disagree with each other about your topic, that increases the odds people behave badly when discussing it. HN's algorithm is designed to encourage good discussions, so the post drops in rank.
If people disagree with each other about your topic, that increases the odds people behave badly when discussing it. HN's algorithm is designed to encourage good discussions, so the post drops in rank.