Well my apologies then, and thank you for the clarification on the flagging policy. I do seem to note my ability to flag stories seems to have vanished if only temporarily....

I don't understand why you think it's boring for participants to complain about policies they dislike about the organizations that post here. Especially when those policies relate to hackers, hackers and society, or even just our roles as citizens in society.

I think this is one way how awareness is raised, and changed effected, and I think it's especially valuable on forums like this one, that are widely read and respected throughout the industry.

Personally, I would like to see Etsy offer grants to people in need, regardless of sex or gender. I think that's every bit as much an issue for Hackers as women's status in hackerdom, or whether Ubuntu has gone too far this time.

What would be more boring is a policy of don't say anything out of fear of being controversial on Hacker News.

I don't think pg meant it was boring for people to complain about policies they don't like. He seems to have meant it was boring for people to complain about linking to sites that they don't like. I don't think you actually did that directly, but you did say you flagged it, which could be construed the same way.

Is this topic a honeypot for flagging? I accidentally flagged this and oops, my flagging link on all stories is gone.

Is the flagging of any and all Microsoft positive stories also an abuse of flagging?