zlacker

>>Robin8+(OP)
> I sent an email to the moderator. @dang, who was very kind and quick in his response, explained to me that the Story had been flagged by users even without being explicitly [flagged], and that he could therefore only hypothesize the causes of the flag.

Maybe this is a consequence of Hacker News not having a way to downvote stories?

I only flag stories that are blatant violation of HN's guidelines: SPAM, politics, racist... Otherwise, if I don't like a story I don't do anything.

Maybe I'll start flagging stories that I don't like?

>>gwbas1+04
Yeah, like you I would have never thought to use the flag unless it was violations etc but turns out it's a weird behaviour of many users. Not sure why or when it originated but seems like its been driving the up/downs of a number of topics/posts for years now. Still use with moderation.