from Hacker News

Ask HN: Is Hacker News broken?

by krausejj on 12/21/18, 4:42 PM with 9 comments

I'll keep it short... I'm a critic, who is also promoting an alternative (https://mendoapp.com), but when I post something I've written or built on hacker news, and I have access to analytics, I see that referral traffic from hacker news is typically zero, or less than whatever vote count I receive (which is typically not a lot of votes).

so, based on this, I don't believe anyone is really evaluating new submissions, and I don't believe it's possible to get exposure on hacker news without a voting ring.

if that's the case, can we really trust that hacker news is surfacing the best content?

  • by wyldfire on 12/21/18, 4:46 PM

    > I don't believe anyone is really evaluating new submissions

    No doubt it's dominated by a few brave/power-hungry souls.

    > I don't believe it's possible to get exposure on hacker news without a voting ring.

    At least in my experience, I see ~15-20% of my submissions rocket to the top of HN. It's usually a function of just how much of a draw there is from the title.

    > can we really trust that hacker news is surfacing the best content?

    shrug, aside from some possible missed yet-greater-HN opportunity, it seems like it works well enough.

  • by gus_massa on 12/21/18, 6:39 PM

    I usually read the newest page. It's full of crap but form time to time you can find something interesting to upvote. (I use "show dead", the [dead] post are even worst, but from time to time you can find some false positive that deserves a vouch.) Please consider spending some time in the newest page. (disclaimer: I don't like threads with more than 100 comments, so looking at the newest page is a good way to find interesting post without a discussion that is totally out of control.)

    I submit stories from time to time, very few, like one per month. Some are my own post and some are thing that I found. I don't use a voting ring, and approximately 1/3 of my submissions get 10 or more upvotes. I have a few with more than 100 votes.

  • by Nomentatus on 12/21/18, 5:21 PM

    There are forum systems in which shadow-banned people can see and interact only with other shadow-banned people. It would not be surprising if those who submit their own sites as regular stories end up quickly shadow-banned to discourage that practice.

  • by jstewartmobile on 12/21/18, 5:27 PM

    HN is a heavily moderated asset of a seed accelerator. I wouldn't be so sure that surfacing the best content is even the objective.

    Lobste.rs seems a little more tech-centric. Reddit seems a little more open. All are limited by STEM groupthink, but HN is the 800lb gorilla for the time being, so we all just have to put that in our pipes and smoke it.

  • by _Schizotypy on 12/21/18, 4:43 PM

    That depends on your definition of "best" which is entirely subjective