alt Hacker News> users also determine (by voting) what is popular
The algorithm considers various other things such the ratio of votes to comments, age of the post etc.
Just compare how different the front page is to /active
> Ycombinator doesn't promote or bury any particular post with their own algorithms
Certain things do get put above the popular stuff if they're fresh enough and your account is deemed to be a taste setter.
> they don't exercise any editorial review or control.
They can decide things like overturning the flagging of a post or burying something even without the flag etc.
Importantly all except one of those things is impartial to the user, and even that one is merely binning based on a single category. Algorithm here is a red herring IMO people are objecting to a couple fairly specific things. One being personalization carried out by the other party, the other designs that introduce partisanship or are detrimental to the end user (ie addiction and other dark patterns).