up vote 6 down vote favorite

This morning there was this question on the front page of meta. Now, just a couple of hours later, it's not there. Why did it disappear from the front page? Is it because of the number of downvotes? I can't recall ever noticing this kind of thing before.

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I'm assuming you mean from before you dropped your answer on it. I just looked and it shows you last modified it and its on the front page. – Holocryptic Oct 6 '11 at 0:14
I don't see it either. Maybe it's a new feature that removes really low voted questions from the front page, as I see some -5's still there – Mark Henderson♦ Oct 6 '11 at 0:26
It's most definitely gone from the 'active' list, but still shows up in 'Questions'. Weird. Apparently if you pile enough hate on a question it stops being active? – sysadmin1138♦ Oct 6 '11 at 0:26
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2 Answers

up vote 4 down vote accepted

Since 2008 when we started the network, any question at -4 or below is suppressed from the front page.

This has always been so.

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Hrm. Well my screenshots show it hanging on the front page at -7 though... It doesn't disappear until -8. Unless its a caching thing. – Holocryptic Oct 8 '11 at 11:39
it is -8 for metas and -4 for main sites. – Jeff Atwood♦ Oct 8 '11 at 11:43
Ok but the upvotes and comments on this question suggest that I'm not the only one who never noticed it before. :) – John Gardeniers Oct 8 '11 at 21:25
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up vote 3 down vote

Okay, so here's what I'm seeing. When you click on the main page, it's gone. But I always sort by Questions>Active and it shows up there. I'm on Chrome, for what it's worth.

Update: We've tested with this question (apologies to whoever that was), and it appears that 8 downvotes is the threshold for removing it from the main page, but not the "Active Questions" page. I have screenshots of the whole thing.

Main page Questions/Active Questions/Newest (This line of ss is from first question to disappear)

Bicycles 1

Bicycles 2

Bicycles 3

Bicycles 3.2

Bicycles 4

Bicycles 4.2

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While I get the same results when going through the same process it still doesn't explain why the post disappeared from the front page, although I suspect there is a downvote threshhold at play. – John Gardeniers Oct 6 '11 at 23:22
@John Possibly more than 5 downvotes? We could quickly empirically test this if we don't get a response... – Holocryptic Oct 7 '11 at 1:10
5 might be the magic number. I certainly can't recall seeing a post with more than that many downvotes on the front page. Of course if you want to start a test then go for it. – John Gardeniers Oct 7 '11 at 1:28
Turns out 8 is the magic number – Holocryptic Oct 7 '11 at 2:25
Thanks, now I won't have to think about this all weekend. ;) – John Gardeniers Oct 7 '11 at 3:08
You're welcome. Anything for science! – Holocryptic Oct 7 '11 at 3:14
Spot the guy who's living up to the stereotype of the anal sys admin! – Ward Oct 7 '11 at 3:21
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I have no idea what you're talking about, sir. – Holocryptic Oct 7 '11 at 3:26
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