If we're not supposed to comment when we flag articles[1], does it really make sense to ask why?

For the record, I hit flag because while this was an outrageous act of barbarism, and indeed freedom of speech is important for all of us, the link does not particularly gratify intellectual curiosity[1]. Nor do I think it's a good idea to start discussing even significant non-hacker news of the day here. The (relative) focus of the hn community is one reason we have such an amazing stable of regular commenters.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

I respectfully disagree. It does sate one's intellectual curiosity to see how an organisation manages its web presence in the immediate aftermath of an event such as this.

Freedom of expression is also central to the hacker ethos, and even with the limited information we have at present, it is quite apparent this was an attack on that principle.

Submissions about this story have been flagkilled all day.

I guess that it's to prevent abuses, but as you say, we are all affected. I think it's important to have a single main thread about this.

Either some folks don't want to see "news" on HN at all or they are flagging it because they don't like the specific subject or are afraid of the conversation that will result.

I'll upvote something that actually discusses how this effects our freedom rather than just some "let's all be upset". As far as I know western politicians have been far more effective at undermining our freedom and increasing extremism than the terrorists could ever have been on their own.

The Juan Cole article is easily the best thing I've read so far, but I still don't think HN would produce any useful discussion about it.

http://www.juancole.com/2015/01/sharpening-contradictions-sa...

I think HN is trying not to have stories like this here. I have to admit I was really curious about this community's reaction (as reddit's reaction is pretty... violent). But afterall is HN really the place to discuss such things?

I think one post as an outlet is fine, but I agree that HN is not the best place for seat-of-the-pants style outrage. I'm looking forward to quality posts written after the initial shock and outrage has subsided.

yup, maybe a post to recapitulate everything in 5 days might be better (grow of right movement, germany's reaction, france's resolutions, etc...)

Seems to be residual of the over reaction to the numerous postings related to the Snowden document releases.

> Martin Niemoller's "First they came for the Communists...."

Seriously? You're making a comparison to the Nazis?

Edit: It's 3 assholes with assault rifles, not a totalitarian state. Can we calibrate our references to be a bit less hysterical and hyperbolic?

He's presumably talking about free speech in general, which is most certainly under attack in a large number of authoritarian nations.

No, s/he's bitching about how the article is ranked on the main page.

These aren't the moderate Muslims you are looking for. Move along.

I think it's flagged because this type of news usually doesn't lead to interesting comments. Yes, freedom of speech is important and I suppose all readers feel sad about what happened, but what can we do about it? Three uneducated, brainwashed guys decided to kill satirists that offended them by making fun of their prophet a few years ago.

The problem lies in poverty, lack of education, propaganda... it's not going to be solved overnight. I just wonder who is leading this propaganda effort and trick those kids into murdering people. Is there an "evil brain" somewhere or is it some kind of "natural phenomenon" that feeds itself?

EDIT: not sure about the downvotes. Did I say something dumb? Living in France, my interpretation of the situation is that more and more teenagers or young adults are attracted to radical islam. This concerns usually people from the poorest neighbourhoods. Most of them aren't dangerous (even though it's quite shocking to read what they have to say on social networks). Atop of this, some get recruited by islamist organisation and are led to go to Syria for instance to fight there (A few hundreds according to the French government). Others are just lost people and commit terrorist attacks on their own behalf (like Merah http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Mohammed_Merah a couple of years ago).

So one hand, we know there are islamist groups recruiting people to commit terrorist attacks, but also there's very clearly an overall rise of radical islam in France that catalyse crazy behaviours.

Trick those kids? Seems there are a lot of kids. http://gatesofvienna.net/2015/01/what-if-these-lone-wolves-w...

Bush killing thousands of people is not in there. Oh I see, it's not on the name of Christianity. French colonialism traces are still felt in many countries, oh I see, it's not on the name of Christianity.

Who gives a crap about in the name of what, it's a crime.

Why do people still talk about Bush, when Obama is the current U.S. president, and routinely kills people with drone strikes?

You're missing the point. The point is thousands of people get killed by world powers and nobody cares.