Why do DOGE stories never make it to the frontpage?

I don't think "DOGE stories never make it to the frontpage" or "none of the really important DOGE news is allowed to surface" are accurate statements. DOGE has been heavily discussed here, and stories have received a lot of attention, e.g:

    The young, inexperienced engineers aiding DOGE
    1683 points | 2990 comments | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42910910

    Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'
    1624 points | 1801 comments | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42981756

    Anyone can push updates to the doge.gov website
    1125 points | 1124 comments | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43045835

    DOGE's only public ledger is riddled with mistakes
    1092 points | 1462 comments | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43138238

    DOGE has 'god mode' access to government data
    884 points | 1670 comments | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43112084

Flags are just from users. Controversial/polarized topics tend to be more prone to getting flagged, from what I've seen.

Who makes the decisions about what is getting flagged

Users flag things.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43227619

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43624035

a news story that seemed pretty important for tech workers to be aware of

That's not really a driving principle of HN - it doesn't actually work like that. It doesn't entirely not-work like that but it mostly doesn't work like that.

In your HN profile, you can turn on "showdead". As others mentioned, flagging is community driven. But you can still see the stories for a little longer, even if dead.

I see DOGE on the front page like every other day, not sure what you mean...

I come here to read interesting technology news, and most of the Doge stories are not interesting technology news. It would suck if HN were full of boring stuff that I can read elsewhere.

I do care a lot about the current situation, and I keep up to date by reading all the other sources that cover politics and the economy. I flag most politics articles because they lower the quality of HN.

If something is either very novel or very interesting it should definitely make it to the front page. But most stuff that gets flagged is getting the right treatment.

However, the one you posted does look kind of interesting. It probably got flagged by people who are even more sick of politics polluting HN and are flagging reflexively.

As someone who's got a quick finger on the "flag" button I am inclined to flag anything that involves Elon Musk whether is someone who thinks he is a hero or thinks he is a villian.

There are topics that go viral because of emotionally negative content and I feel like I have to be very careful who I follow on Mastodon and Bluesky so that my feed is not dominated by outrage. I appreciate that HN isn't like that and I want to keep it that way. There are enough places you can participate in breathless discussions about the outrage of the day.

Also there are fellow HNers whose comments I really enjoy, who seem thoughtful and intelligent and who I have a great time interacting with who seem to turn into werewolves [1] when certain topics come up and keeping those topics away helps me experience their best.

[1] circa Spring 2025 I'm starting to wonder if is fair to werewolves to talk like this though

Been that way for a while. It can't be organic, but not triggering enough for whichever right set of people to take on it.