We've turned off the flags, but we all need to take extra care to comment civilly and substantively so that we have a chance to discuss the actual issue. Users often flag stories like this because they're anticipating flamewars and not at all because they disagree with the content of the article.

I think it's a bit uncool to "turn off the flags" here. I flagged this specifically because I am tired of the incessant flamewar that will surely happen in here.

When moderators do this we compensate by giving the thread specific attention to attempt to prevent such flamewars as best we can.

> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Ideological or political battle or talking points. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

This post seems off topic to me. There are a lot of these stories floating around (sadly). They're all over the news.

I also think your suggestion is silly if meant to be taken seriously.

I must be a shit hacker, as I certainly found the post interesting. It discusses human behavior in the context of hackers gathering together, and strategies on improving those behaviors. How can you possibly get more on-topic?

Really? I describe a specific way YC could use their unique access to a proprietary dataset to gain a competitive advantage in the tech venture capital marketplace. One literally couldn't be more on-topic for HN.