It&#x27;s nothing to do with admins - it&#x27;s ordinary users flagging items as not being appropriate for HN.  They might even be interesting, it&#x27;s just that some things are not on-topic.<p>For example - spam really doesn&#x27;t belong, and should be flagged.  When that happens, the item is killed and is marked as [dead].<p>Do you have any specific item in mind?