zlacker

The secret that nobody tells you about HN is that it's not moderated by dang and sctb, but by dang, sctb and all users. In a sort of emergent way by users, of course, because we just downvote the kinds of comments we don't want to see (and some probably actively look out for comments that break the site guidelines) and upvote the ones we want to see. Hence the constant chatter about the "hive mind" etc. I guess. If you have a large body of users up- and down-voting what they think is right/wrong behaviour there's going to be _some_ tendencies that come out on top in every thread, and perhaps in the site as a whole. But that's not to say that what these top-tendencies are won't fluctuate wildly, even in the same day.

It's complicated. A simulation would be interesting.

>>YeGobl+(OP)
Good point about user involvement, but I'd wager that there are at least 3 more "secrets".

The first is that a lot of the moderation is done algorithmically. Things like "flamewar detector" cool down stories that look like they are getting too many comments.

The second is that user flagging plays a very large role. For better or worse, if some tiny percentage of users think a comment or story is inappropriate for the site, it disappears. User vouching then plays a smaller but also important role in reviving some of these.

The last is that 'sctb' is no longer involved, and 'dang' is the sole remaining moderator. Sometimes I think he encourages people to believe that 'sctb' is still involved because he'd be embarrassed if people knew how much time and effort he puts into the site.