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
Yea, I suspect a sizable number of people use "flag" as a mega-downvote for things they passionately don't like, rather than for policy violations and spam.

>>ryandr+R5
For anyone that is concerned about over flagging, please consider turning on showdead and vouching responsibly!

If as many people thoughtfully vouched as maliciously flagged it may be less of an issue.

>>goles+X9
Wait, how do you vouch for something that has been flagged? I don't see that option, even with showdead turned on.

>>karate+Fr
For recent dead comments, click on the time ("31 minutes ago") to bring up the comment's own page where there's a "vouch" option next to the other comment options if you have enough karma.

For dead stories in the "new" queue, I see a "vouch" option already without going to the story's own page.