> HN has another issue, though: anyone expressing an opinion that goes against the HN "group-think" (for lack of a better word) gets downvoted to oblivion as a result, even if no participants go on a flame-bait mission
This really isn't true, and the people who argue that it is will often argue that the group think takes diametrically opposed positions to those attributed to it by other people making the same argument.
HN has large factions on multiple sides of most issues, which mostly offset each other in pure-disagreement based moderation (though moment to moment it can vary). Mostly, if someone is getting consistently downvoted, its more about approach than opinion, though people strongly-enough biased toward the opinion that they can't see the approach issues through their affection for the position will tend to attribute it to hostility to the opinion. (You can often see this occur on opposing sides in the same thread.)
This really isn't true, and the people who argue that it is will often argue that the group think takes diametrically opposed positions to those attributed to it by other people making the same argument.
HN has large factions on multiple sides of most issues, which mostly offset each other in pure-disagreement based moderation (though moment to moment it can vary). Mostly, if someone is getting consistently downvoted, its more about approach than opinion, though people strongly-enough biased toward the opinion that they can't see the approach issues through their affection for the position will tend to attribute it to hostility to the opinion. (You can often see this occur on opposing sides in the same thread.)