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For some reason, this is the fifth posting of this site in the past two days, and the only one to make it to the front page.

by mkaziz 10y ago

fiatjaf 10y ago
It seems that HN is encouraging people to post the same Show HN projects multiple times until they get traction. I have been restraining myself from doing that with my own projects because I care a little about this community, but since moderators and the majority of users don't, I will not restrain myself anymore.
- detaro 10y ago
  To be fair, unless it's sockpuppet accounts the author only posted it twice (potentially in error, the second one got flagged). Can't really stop other people from resubmitting your Show HN.
  - fiatjaf 10y ago
    Ok, maybe I overreacted, but it is because I saw the other two submissions, coincidentally, then I thought it was maybe submitted more (perhaps because it was flagged at the first time I saw it). I've seen other cases of overposting in the recent past, so I became suspicious of everything.
- matthewmacleod 10y ago
  That seems a little unfair. I suspect it's just that users are encouraged to not feel that they should refrain from posting interesting content again just because it quickly fell away.
- nicky0 10y ago
  I don't see anything wrong with that. If something failed to get traction then barely anyone would have seen it. So posting it again will cause very little annoyance.
- dang 10y ago
  It's great that you care about the community. People caring about HN is what makes it good. The repost thing is in the FAQ: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html. It's a well-known weakness of HN's structure that many good stories get posted to /newest and then fail to get noticed before they get washed out to see. There are just so many submissions here. Over the last couple of years we've developed techniques for rescuing good stories and giving them second chances at attention. The simplest was just to let people know that a small number of reposts is ok. Reposts aren't great, of course, but missing good stories is worse. Think of it as allowing multiple pitches before striking out. Another thing we did is build a system for story reviewing—initially by moderators only, now by us plus some users, with the plan of opening it to the whole community as soon as we figure out how—under which stories that get picked as good by reviewers get a random placement somewhere on the bottom half of the front page. These are stories that would otherwise have fallen through the cracks completely. For example, your Show HN at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12635722 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12635722 looks good, so I just put it in the second-chance queue, and it's on the front page now. You should also have gotten an email saying we did this. Btw you might want to add a comment to that thread introducing yourself and explaining the background to the project—readers like that, and it tends to seed better discussions.
  - fiatjaf 10y ago
    I know it is in the fact, I just thought this one was posted more times than it actually was (if it was actually only posted 3 times, one flagged). Thank you for all the clarifications anyway. I actually complained knowing that achieving the correct mix of fairness, having-good-stories, and overposting prevention is a kind of impossible task (and HN seems to be doing well), so I was a kind of a troll, we may say. I'm sorry.

For some reason, this is the fifth posting of this site in the past two days, and the only one to make it to the front page.

by mkaziz 10y ago

For some reason, this is the fifth posting of this site in the past two days, and the only one to make it to the front page.

fiatjaf 10y ago

It seems that HN is encouraging people to post the same Show HN projects multiple times until they get traction. I have been restraining myself from doing that with my own projects because I care a little about this community, but since moderators and the majority of users don't, I will not restrain myself anymore.

detaro 10y ago
To be fair, unless it's sockpuppet accounts the author only posted it twice (potentially in error, the second one got flagged). Can't really stop other people from resubmitting your Show HN.
- fiatjaf 10y ago
  Ok, maybe I overreacted, but it is because I saw the other two submissions, coincidentally, then I thought it was maybe submitted more (perhaps because it was flagged at the first time I saw it). I've seen other cases of overposting in the recent past, so I became suspicious of everything.
matthewmacleod 10y ago
That seems a little unfair. I suspect it's just that users are encouraged to not feel that they should refrain from posting interesting content again just because it quickly fell away.
nicky0 10y ago
I don't see anything wrong with that. If something failed to get traction then barely anyone would have seen it. So posting it again will cause very little annoyance.
dang 10y ago
It's great that you care about the community. People caring about HN is what makes it good. The repost thing is in the FAQ: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html. It's a well-known weakness of HN's structure that many good stories get posted to /newest and then fail to get noticed before they get washed out to see. There are just so many submissions here. Over the last couple of years we've developed techniques for rescuing good stories and giving them second chances at attention. The simplest was just to let people know that a small number of reposts is ok. Reposts aren't great, of course, but missing good stories is worse. Think of it as allowing multiple pitches before striking out. Another thing we did is build a system for story reviewing—initially by moderators only, now by us plus some users, with the plan of opening it to the whole community as soon as we figure out how—under which stories that get picked as good by reviewers get a random placement somewhere on the bottom half of the front page. These are stories that would otherwise have fallen through the cracks completely. For example, your Show HN at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12635722 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12635722 looks good, so I just put it in the second-chance queue, and it's on the front page now. You should also have gotten an email saying we did this. Btw you might want to add a comment to that thread introducing yourself and explaining the background to the project—readers like that, and it tends to seed better discussions.
- fiatjaf 10y ago
  I know it is in the fact, I just thought this one was posted more times than it actually was (if it was actually only posted 3 times, one flagged). Thank you for all the clarifications anyway. I actually complained knowing that achieving the correct mix of fairness, having-good-stories, and overposting prevention is a kind of impossible task (and HN seems to be doing well), so I was a kind of a troll, we may say. I'm sorry.