I think this merits your tradition of moderating less if YC's interests are implicated.
Moreover, even if there were, (a) the OP has been on HN's front page for hours and is currently at #4, (b) this story has been heavily discussed on HN, with several major threads in the last few days alone, and (c) asking people not to fulminate doesn't mean they can't make substantive critical points—if anything it helps them do so.
> Moreover, even if there were ...
Makes sense. You have a much better view of that than me.
The old school, Sand Hill-style tradition of greed, pettiness, backbiting and double-crosses continues unchanged.
Do you have a source?
That tradition has gone out the window: https://twitter.com/breckyunits/status/1590858862504316928
If you're going to make a claim like that you should say why, and post links, so readers can make up their own minds.
I don't think anyone should be able to flag anonymously. Judges don't get to hide behind anon accounts when they hand out sentences. Not in America anyway. It's cowardly and dishonorable.
I don't mind when dumb stuff I submit gets flagged. But when something strikes a chord and rises to the top and then is flagged, we have a "make something people want, that the censors approve of", type of situation.
Actually users have been emailing us to complain about your submissions, and I've been trying to hold them off.
> it's most likely that users flagged your post
I think when users flag a post they should only be given that privilege if their account is under their real name and if it shows who flagged a post. I rarely flag a post but when I do I would always be willing to do so publicly and state why. Otherwise downvotes/lack of upvotes should be the only acceptable means of flagging.
Obviously you post under your real name, so if you flag anything then I of course can disagree but have no right to be upset as ultimately you are the final judge here and I respect that.
Otherwise downvotes/lack of upvotes should be the only acceptable means of flagging.
It's unlikely the site would have users of 15 years such as yourself if it ever operated like that. Or really any users.
The rule that we moderate less when YC or a YC startup is part of a story (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...) is about mods, not users. Users are free to flag things that they think don't belong on HN.
I understand if you have a disagreement with how flags work on HN—you're not alone in that. But it is a separate issue from the point raised upthread (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33553556).