I was going to start an Ask HN post on this very thing just this morning, so instead I’ll just reply here.
The last few weeks, HN seems to be suppressing Apple headlines. They will be on the front page, but then drop off minutes later - despite being fresh, growing in votes and engagement, and being high quality articles.
Meanwhile, positive headlines about OpenAI will be up for hours…
Also, don’t blame the mod tools. This should be fixed, that’s not normal
Thank you for not posting an off-topic Ask HN. As the site guidelines ask, you should email hn@ycombinator.com if you want to ask or tell us something (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).
There's no special treatment of Apple stories or any other $BigCo stories on HN; the dominant variable is simply random fluctuation. If you're seeing otherwise, it's almost certainly because random fluctuation provides a rich set of datapoints to confirm whatever perception you're inclined towards. Mostly we're all primed to notice, and weight more heavily, the things we dislike. (Endless past explanations about this here, for anyone who cares: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...).
For example, if you dislike $BigCo then it will seem like negative stories about $BigCo are being suppressed. Indeed there are tons of examples of such stories not staying on the frontpage—but there are also tons of examples of exactly the opposite. How one weights these is a function of one's own perception, which is governed by what one likes and dislikes. People who like $BigCo are just as convinced that HN is biased against $BigCo, and find just as many datapoints to support it, and post just as many complaints about it.
These dynamics are as old as the hills and impossible to stop. All we can do is answer specific questions when we happen to see them. I only saw this one randomly; in the future, please use the reliable mechanism (hn@ycombinator.com) to get your question answered. It's not as if any of this is secret!
I didn’t flag this one, but a lot of the debates wind up with pro-Apple/anti-Apple generalities. Which isn’t interesting. Even in this thread, it’s mostly people expressing outrage and disgust or reflexive dismissal; few actual thoughts.
