> I maintain that I am flagging this because I consider it off-topic and not intellectually stimulating.
The discussion happening in this thread does not support your conclusions. As per the HN guidelines:
> Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
There is an interesting phenomenon here -- that sex rates are apparently changing very significantly. Whether or not you personally were inspired the post, it is clear that this has provoked plenty of intellectually stimulating discussion here. If the flag button is abused, it makes the moderator's jobs harder. To properly flag posts, a good rule of thumb is to ask these questions before flagging a post:
1. Are people having civil discussions and learning new
points of view in a constructive manner?
Whether or not you are interested or able to
participate in the discussions has no bearing on the
answer to this question.
2. If the post isn't about computers/technology,
is there something academic about the post?
Is there data to discuss, its implications, etc.?
If you can answer "yes" to these questions, you probably shouldn't be flagging the post.
I'm not belittling you, I'm trying to say that the flag button is very important, serves a specific purpose, and should not be treated like a downvote button. You are probably missing the point. As someone who has been a moderator, I've had to work with people who use their personal feelings to decide what should and shouldn't be censored -- and they make awful moderators. Moderators shouldn't censor things because "they personally feel it won't lead to discussion". That's what user interaction is for: the users decide what is and isn't appropriate for discussion with their votes and comments.
The best moderators use objective criteria when exercising their powers. You might want to say that you're not a moderator and that you're just a user, but this also misses the point. HackerNews has been kind enough to give users a moderation tool (flagging), so you should treat the tool with respect. You have great power with that tool, and your contributions are very important, so it's important that we contribute in a good way.
The discussion happening in this thread does not support your conclusions. As per the HN guidelines:
> Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.
There is an interesting phenomenon here -- that sex rates are apparently changing very significantly. Whether or not you personally were inspired the post, it is clear that this has provoked plenty of intellectually stimulating discussion here. If the flag button is abused, it makes the moderator's jobs harder. To properly flag posts, a good rule of thumb is to ask these questions before flagging a post:
If you can answer "yes" to these questions, you probably shouldn't be flagging the post.