HN is the most heavily moderated, manipulated and astro-turned forum I've even seen, but you don't realize that until the mods start suppressing your posts and comments. Titles are constantly edited for no apparent reason, users who post unpopular facts are permanently penalized, and you can watch as negative stories about large tech companies are quickly flagged off the front page.

There's literally zero transparency here. At least on Reddit you can track the censorship in real time.

> you can watch as negative stories about large tech companies are quickly flagged off the front page.

you’re literally writing this underneath a very popular, negative, front-page post about a big tech company.

HN is popular because of its moderation, not in spite of it.

I personally have a problem with the front page being heavily curated by dang instead of relying on user preferences (as it should be). At some point it's not moderation any more. it's censorship.

Of course when you point it out it's just a "moderation mistake"

According to HN

Bookmarking for posterity