> this site disappears a 1500 comment thread about the Marines
That thread spent over 12 hours on the front page and we actively intervened multiple times to keep it on the front page that long by overriding flags and flamewar penalties. We also spent hours in the thread managing the flamewars.
A lot of bullshit stereotypes get bandied around about HN, and the biggest one lately as that it – whether people mean the moderators or sections of the community or some other mysterious forces – "bury" or "hide" or "disappear" stories that are inconvenient to some political or commercial interests. Or that the community cares more about trivialities that serious issues.
It's false and it doesn't stand up to any scrutiny. The political stories people keep claiming have been buried have in fact been on the front page and the active page for huge amounts of time. Whereas this story you're calling out here was only on the front page for 3 hours.
More generally, of the political interests people keep claiming are influencing HN: none of them care about HN. We just don't matter to people with political agendas.
Explaining this when people make false claims isn't being overly defensive, it's correcting the record, or offering balancing context. If we don't do that, unaware observers see the lack of a response from us and assume it must be true (which happened in the replies to your comment).
Incidentally, the mature and honest way to approach this is to not let your emotionality cloud your comprehension and assign the conflicts in your head to the statements I have made. Instead, you explain the phenomenon to a sufficient detail such that the misperceptions you are afraid of other users making can be addressed.
Assigning your fears to me, in conflict with the words I have used, is at best disingenuous.
You guys are supposed to be impressive leaders of society into the Brave New World.
That thread spent over 12 hours on the front page and we actively intervened multiple times to keep it on the front page that long by overriding flags and flamewar penalties. We also spent hours in the thread managing the flamewars.