points by dang 1 year ago

Stories about divisive topics are routinely flagged from all sides.

It's common, if not inevitable, for people who feel strongly about $topic to conclude that the system (or the community, or the mods, etc.) are biased against their side (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...). One is far more likely to notice whatever data points that one dislikes because they go against one's view and overweight those relative to others (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...). This is probably the single most reliable phenomenon on this site. Keep in mind that the people with the opposite view to yours are just as convinced that there's bias, but they're sure that it's against their side and in favor of yours.

I could never say there's no bias—unconscious bias is a thing, for example—but I can tell you that we work hard to be fair, have been doing that for years, and there hasn't been any change in our practices.

abtinf 1 year ago

Out of curiosity, can you identify any pro-Israel stories that have been unflagged in the past year?

2OEH8eoCRo0 1 year ago

Add something to the page that indicates moderator intervention so we can see for ourselves. All we have is your word.

Aren't you tired of answering the same questions on every divisive thread?

  • dang 1 year ago

    Of course, but adding something like that wouldn't stop the questions. If anything, it would amplify them.

fldskfjdslkfj 1 year ago

Sure, and yet if you take the examples you provided, unless you just happened to make a series of "unlucky" picks the probability is that the bias is pretty strong.

Now of course, there's nothing inherently wrong with having a bias (depending on the bias of course), but if you clearly have one while claiming to try and be unbiased that's wrong imo.