A few points: -the number of people who have friends vote their stories to the front-page (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1035206 http://news.ycombinator.

A few points: -the number of people who have friends vote their stories to the front-page (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1035206 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1035206) -the time of day (and day of week) you submit your story (http://blog.itlater.com/whats-the-best-time-to-post-to-hackernews/ http://blog.itlater.com/whats-the-best-time-to-post-to-hacke...) -(related to above) how many stories are submitted soon after yours determines how long your submission stays on the New page, even if they're all spam Notice that none of these factors have anything to do with the quality of the posted content.