Re:Ask HN: Why dont my upvotes work?
by waterlesscloud on Tuesday October 15, 2013 @09:56AM
(#6553206)
I lost my flagging ability long ago. I habitually flagged political stories that others upvoted. Apparently going against the crowd flagged me for flagging. Heh.
Not the way I'd design it to work, but then it's not my site.
Yeah I've wondered about that. I've flagged some BS political stories too and wondered if I was endangering my flagging privileges by disagreeing. I don't really care, but interesting to know.
I have flagging, in the ~1000 karma range, so it still exists. I've hardly ever used it.
I'm not sure that flagging is meant for shooting down topic matter you'd rather not see on HN. And that's why the ability is removed from those who overuse it. Flagging is for blatant spam or personal attacks or other abuses, it's not a content-selection mechanism. Upvotes select content.
Re:Ask HN: Why dont my upvotes work?
by sbierwagen on Tuesday October 15, 2013 @12:36PM
(#6554353)
Me too.
Fun fact: if you downvote too many people, your downvote button is invisibly disabled for a short time.
Now, whether this is good or bad UX is up to the admins to decide. I assume "flag" is buried a little bit to prevent abuses of it, just as replying to someone's replies to yourself is delayed a little bit to prevent rapidfire back-and-forths.