i put this together as a high-level and informal analysis of post rank as a function of: time since submission (hours), upvotes (points), and the volume of comments posted. comparisons made relate to the post Google to Microsoft: Remove your YouTube App from the Windows Phone Store https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5715168 (shown as highlighted in yellow; near the bottom..)

> http://i.imgur.com/ZCR2hun.jpg

without knowing exactly how rank is determined, the highlighted post’s positioning appears to be significantly depressed relative to where it should be, based on examining similar posts (in terms of time since posting, points, and comments).

it has been mentioned that this irregularity is likely due to said post being atypically ‘flagged’ as spam. i have no data to back this up, but having seen similar behavior before, i believe this to be the case - and it appears to be a fairly common occurrence with posts that present a viewpoint counter to that of the majority. i believe this apparent abuse of the spam ‘flagging’ feature on HN is seriously detrimental to the community.

i think it would be beneficial if we could: (1) get a statement clarifying rules/good practices around ‘flagging’ posts, (2) some form of verification that abuse of this feature has been occurring, or evidence contradicting it, and (3) a discussion around potential changes to the system.. i personally believe keeping the feature in-place makes sense, to help deal with actual spam, but would recommend implementing some logic to help mitigate its abuse (such as a upvote/comment threshold that, if achieved, negates the effect of flags).