Once this tsunami dies down, we'll put it back the way it was before. In the meantime, when there's significant new information (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...), we can take the penalty off. The trouble is that it's not exactly easy to tell significant new information apart from significant new drama. Plus I was offline for part of the day yesterday.
As you can see from the above HN Search link, it's not like HN has been lacking for Reddit discussion—the problem is all the other way.
Why change the weighting given stories on a given topic without notice?
And how do you reconcile this change with HN's long-standing policy that "We moderate HN less, not more, when YC or YC startups are the story", which is "literally the first rule of HN moderation"?
<>>34320816 >
Reiterated within the past week: <>>36366909 >
A few days ago.
> Why change the weighting given stories on a given topic without notice?
We don't give notice about that kind of thing.
> And how do you reconcile this change with HN's long-standing policy
It follows it strictly. HN has had over 500 threads about Reddit, containing over 25,000 comments, in the 3 weeks since this kerfuffle went kablooey. (And that's just the threads with "reddit" in the title - there have been plenty more.) For any other topic that repetitive and drama-filled, we would have penalized it much more and much earlier.
The rule is that we moderate less, not more, when YC or a YC startup is the story. Note the word "less". We still moderate, we just do it less—and we've done it way less on this Reddit tsunami than we otherwise would have. In fact we probably went too far in the other direction.
I mean just look at those search results: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateEnd=1687485600&dateRange=custom&.... That is nuts, way over the top, and not at all standard practice for HN. The idea (if anyone is entertaining it) that we've somehow suppressed this story is pretty silly when it's one of the most-discussed (and most repetitively, and indignantly) topics of all time.
If there's significant new information, you'd be welcome to let us know at hn@ycombinator.com so we can take a look. I didn't see significant new information at >>36434885 , and I certainly didn't see a substantively different discussion in the HN comments - merely the same rehash.