alt Hacker NewsThere is zero evidence that would sway me other than full transparency into all company records, which I recognize as an implausible ask.
I do not trust companies, or any organization involved in their creation and investment like this forum, to speak honestly and openly.
They have an incentive not to and their peers have proven time and time again that this incentive is too enticing to avoid.
I have seen and taken part in threads on here that were negative for ycombinator and/or their business partners be removed at almost machine level speed.
Maybe it’s the company, maybe it’s the community opinion, maybe it’s another option that I didn’t anticipate.
Regardless I assume it’s the company because they have not proven otherwise and companies in the American business setting are guilty until proven innocent to me.
Don't underestimate the power of brigading. If a couple of YC founders on YC's internal forum (much like HN) decide to get together there isn't much the moderators of HN can do about it other than to act retro-actively.
You'll see the same happen whenever someone is critical of some deity or brand (say, Steve Jobs or Apple). This is a generic problem, and it is a hard one to solve.
I've always been a fan of analyzing all of the flags retro-actively to see if they were just or not and to have a per-subject matrix that would weigh flags from particular users. So anybody that is on the gravy train at apple would find their apple flagging permissions removed, and all YC combinator founders would have their ability to flag YC related threads removed. But that is a lot of work to implement and keep accurate.