I wasn't aware that flags required moderator attention. I assumed that once an article was flagged enough times, a mod would be alerted, but not that each flag would trigger an alert.

I would very much like to get moderators' attention or feedback on this. I don't think these kind of comments should be banned, but I think they would be curbed if there was a community guideline.

Good point. I don't know how the HN software is written but my guess is that when it's time to take action (X number of flags), it's something a looks at.

There could be a level of automation built into this where X number of high reputation members flag something, it could automatically be banned.

Either way, I think flagging is more fitting to abuse than off-topic. I agree with you that it would be great to get a mod to weigh in on this.

Unfortunately, many of us don't have downvote rights yet. If this were the case, I definitely wouldn't flag unless community standards were flagrantly violated!

Don't worry; if you wanted to vote a post down, there's probably someone with high enough karma who also wants to downvote the same post.

Strangely enough, that's comforting!

How do you get downvote abilities? I had them on my old inactive account from a few years ago but not this one. Is there a karma quota or something?

Do moderators actually go through all flagged items? If so, that would probably explain why I can't flag anymore. I assumed flagging was automated, so I basically used it as down-vote for articles.

I emailed info@yc about my lack of flagging ability a couple months back. They said nothing was wrong with my account. Now I feel bad that I wasted someone's time. :(

I should have been more clear that I was speculating that a flag ultimately required mod attention. I'm going based on personal experience with forums and software development.