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
I see dead comments, (there's one in this thread,) but I never see dead stories.

I also pretty regularly vouch.