People kept flagging threads announcing Kobe's death when it happened back in January 2020, claiming they were irrelevant to HN. In the end, I think they all got deleted.
In contrast, Terry Jones got his own black bar a few days beforehand. For some reason, he was deemed extremely relevant to HN.
I appreciate that keeping HN from devolving too far into angry shitposting requires subjective moderation, but I thought and think this was stupid and demonstrates how narrow-minded the conception of "hacker" can be on here.
You can search and find a few from the day, but the flaggers specifically targeted the posts with multiple comments. The only ones specifically focusing on the death that are still accessible only have one or two comments. A few tangentially about the accident or his philosophy slipped through.
I remember seeing complaints in replies to people mourning, saying absurd things like, "I've never heard of him before," and, "He's not important/famous enough."
To this day, I don't know what combination of "hackers' general disdain for athletes" and "internet's general disdain for black people," caused this response. I struggle to think of another explanation.
In contrast, Terry Jones got his own black bar a few days beforehand. For some reason, he was deemed extremely relevant to HN.
I appreciate that keeping HN from devolving too far into angry shitposting requires subjective moderation, but I thought and think this was stupid and demonstrates how narrow-minded the conception of "hacker" can be on here.