Ask HN: Is there a better model than flagging?

  • You submitted two links, both to an industry group headed up by Guus Berkhout:

    [quote]

      Berkhout founded the Netherlands-based organization Climate Intelligence Foundation (CLINTEL).
    
      Mid 2019 plans of CLINTEL and Berkhout were leaked showing that they were organizing a campaign against political commitments to net zero carbon emissions being made into law. The campaign features a number of academics and industry figures with ties to climate change sceptics groups, as well as members from oil and gas companies.
    
      Berkhout claimed the ideal of the organization was to provide an alternative to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
    
      In late September 2019 the group produced an open letter which presented a European Climate Declaration, stating that there was no climate emergency and repeating a number of claims that were inconsistent with the scientific evidence on climate.
    
      A fact check performed by climate scientists for Climate Feedback gave the letter an overall scientific credibility of "very low", and tagged it as "Biased, Cherry-picking, Inaccurate, Misleading".
    
      The analysis also added that, out of the roughly 500 signatories, only 10 self-identified as climate scientists. 
    
      The document was later rebranded as the World Climate Declaration.
    
    [/quote]

    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guus_Berkhout

    Climate Science (as laid out by the IPCC) is akin to Foucoult's Pendulum; the earth rotates, and human activity is altering the atmosphere in a measurable manner that traps more heat energy than is normally retained.

    You may have a contrarian opinion about measurable facts .. but there are bars and cafes for those.

  • Your first submission may have been flagged because you wrote (“editorialized”) the title instead of using the actual page title. As https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html says: “Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize.”

    (Also, the title you chose may have been seen as an attempt to attract extra attention or skew the discussion. Whatever your actual intention, there’s little patience for that.)

  • HN has its own mechanisms to keep trash off the homepage, those mechanisms worked as intended. Please don't litter.

  • I saw your submission and I think this is a case where flagging worked well.

    My understanding of HN objectives is to promote new and interesting conversation. A "anthropogenic climate change is not real" article doesn't promote a good discussion, it just prompts people to rehash the same old stuff. Not to say that every new article about what Elon Musk did leads to any better conversation, but even many of those get flagged, and at least they are tracking a current event relevant to tech. There is no significant new information in sites like what you posted.

    As a secondary point, but no doubt it helped getting the article flagged, it's a low-quality single agenda website that nobody has heard of and has all the hallmarks of a slightly crazy "fake news" (advertorial, whatever you want to call it) site. If an even slightly reputable real news org covered this, it might get flagged less. Though it would still probably lead to the same boring debate and ultimately get flagged anyway

  • How do we know that this large number of scientists actually exist? Have you met each of them and read their work? How do we know that you even submitted a link earlier?

  • People can vouch for your submission, nobody did.