4 ms·

How come when I posted this (my blog post) here I only got 2 points? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14704462 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14704462

How come when I posted this (my blog post) here I only got 2 points? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14704462 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14704462 :D

amenghra 9y ago
Meritocracy /s
peterburkimsher 9y ago
You can try writing "Show HN" at the start of your title, but that hasn't even helped me too much. I still get more upvotes/karma from writing witty comments instead of publishing code.
- em3rgent0rdr 9y ago
  a bit of a witty comment there...upvoted. :)
Just1689 9y ago
Upload time of day is also important
- vacri 9y ago
  Also if it doesn't make it to the front page, it's hardly seen at all.
  - vog 9y ago
    In that respect, news aggregators are remarkably similar to growth-based startups.
  - _0ffh 9y ago
    Yup, I think an article needs to get over a certain threshold before it even stands a chance to collect lots of points. Having a couple of early upvotes helps an article get over that first hump.
  - mirimir 9y ago
    I've read that all posts make it to the front page. But they don't stay there very long, unless they get enough upvotes quickly enough. But if they get too many upvotes too quickly, with few comments, they get kicked off the front page.
    - dTal 9y ago
      I've read the converse, that a comment without a vote harms a story's ranking. I'm certain there's something (unintentionally) perverse in the ranking system, but as it's secret it's impossible to say for sure. Secret rules that manipulate our behaviour are damaging.
      - mirimir 9y ago
        I may have misremembered. Whichever it was, I believe that the intent was to discourage low-quality discussion.
z3t4 9y ago
I'm also intrigued by this, it also happens in comments, that the top post with 20+ upvotes can have the same content as the most down-voted post with -3 points, but not as common as reposts getting to the front page, while the original only got 2 points. After submitting something to HN I like to watch the HTTP logs, I get a lot of visitors from bots, but it's actually only ca 10-20 real people that actually read your blog. I don't know eneough of statisitcs to explain it well, but as 20 people is so small amount of the total HN readers, it's basically luck. And the representation of those who reads the "new" section might be a bit skewed from those who only reads the front page. If you want to help HN get better with more interesting content, you can help by actually visiting the "new" section.
- isolli 9y ago
  Maybe the "new" section should be the default one. The Economist once changed their default comments view from "most recommended" to "newest". Suddenly the advantage of being the first to post a moderately good comment vanished. Design matters.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- mncharity 9y ago
  We know how to deal with this, and have for years. A bot which instruments and invokes humans, learning about content and individuals both. Few humans are needed each time, and those need not be experts, if used well. 20 people is much more than enough. A candy machine, in an undergraduate lounge, can grade CS 101 exams.1 Ah, but discussion support - from Usenet to reddit (and on HN too), incentives do not align with need. Decades pass, and little changes. Perhaps as ML and croudsourcing and AR mature? Civilization may someday be thought worth the candles. Someday? 1 http://represent.berkeley.edu/umati/ http://represent.berkeley.edu/umati/ Edit: tl;dr: Future bot: "I have a submission. It has a topic, a shape, and other metrics. It's from a submitter, with a history. Perhaps it has comments, also with metrics, from people also with histories. I have people available, currently reading HN, who all have histories. That's a lot of data - I can do statistics. Who might best reduce my optimization function uncertainty? I choose consults, draw the submission to their attention, and ask them questions. I iterate and converge." Versus drooling bot: "Uhh, a down vote click. Might be an expert, might be eternal September... duh, don't know, don't care. points--. Duh, done."
pwm 9y ago
My pet theory is that very few people visit /newest and even less are consistently and persistently active over there. This means that, in general, only a handful of people's inherently subjective taste steers the ship. I find this fascinating.
gpvos 9y ago
Bad luck. There aren't very many people looking at the new posts page, and posts drop off quite fast.
bfung 9y ago
Lessons learned: 1. Stop posting to HN and let others do it for you 2. Spend more effort in writing blog and less on HN karma 3. ... (monetize) 4. Profit!!! (+ more blog posts about how you monetized and instantly gain more HN karma than posting will ever do) </saracasm> =) upvoted for original content.
ridgewell 9y ago
Sorry! Didn't realize you already posted this before.

How come when I posted this (my blog post) here I only got 2 points? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14704462 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14704462 :D

amenghra 9y ago

Meritocracy /s

peterburkimsher 9y ago

You can try writing "Show HN" at the start of your title, but that hasn't even helped me too much. I still get more upvotes/karma from writing witty comments instead of publishing code.

em3rgent0rdr 9y ago
a bit of a witty comment there...upvoted. :)

Just1689 9y ago

Upload time of day is also important

vacri 9y ago
Also if it doesn't make it to the front page, it's hardly seen at all.
- vog 9y ago
  In that respect, news aggregators are remarkably similar to growth-based startups.
- _0ffh 9y ago
  Yup, I think an article needs to get over a certain threshold before it even stands a chance to collect lots of points. Having a couple of early upvotes helps an article get over that first hump.
- mirimir 9y ago
  I've read that all posts make it to the front page. But they don't stay there very long, unless they get enough upvotes quickly enough. But if they get too many upvotes too quickly, with few comments, they get kicked off the front page.
  - dTal 9y ago
    I've read the converse, that a comment without a vote harms a story's ranking. I'm certain there's something (unintentionally) perverse in the ranking system, but as it's secret it's impossible to say for sure. Secret rules that manipulate our behaviour are damaging.
    - mirimir 9y ago
      I may have misremembered. Whichever it was, I believe that the intent was to discourage low-quality discussion.

z3t4 9y ago

I'm also intrigued by this, it also happens in comments, that the top post with 20+ upvotes can have the same content as the most down-voted post with -3 points, but not as common as reposts getting to the front page, while the original only got 2 points. After submitting something to HN I like to watch the HTTP logs, I get a lot of visitors from bots, but it's actually only ca 10-20 real people that actually read your blog. I don't know eneough of statisitcs to explain it well, but as 20 people is so small amount of the total HN readers, it's basically luck. And the representation of those who reads the "new" section might be a bit skewed from those who only reads the front page. If you want to help HN get better with more interesting content, you can help by actually visiting the "new" section.

isolli 9y ago
Maybe the "new" section should be the default one. The Economist once changed their default comments view from "most recommended" to "newest". Suddenly the advantage of being the first to post a moderately good comment vanished. Design matters.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
mncharity 9y ago
We know how to deal with this, and have for years. A bot which instruments and invokes humans, learning about content and individuals both. Few humans are needed each time, and those need not be experts, if used well. 20 people is much more than enough. A candy machine, in an undergraduate lounge, can grade CS 101 exams.1 Ah, but discussion support - from Usenet to reddit (and on HN too), incentives do not align with need. Decades pass, and little changes. Perhaps as ML and croudsourcing and AR mature? Civilization may someday be thought worth the candles. Someday? 1 http://represent.berkeley.edu/umati/ http://represent.berkeley.edu/umati/ Edit: tl;dr: Future bot: "I have a submission. It has a topic, a shape, and other metrics. It's from a submitter, with a history. Perhaps it has comments, also with metrics, from people also with histories. I have people available, currently reading HN, who all have histories. That's a lot of data - I can do statistics. Who might best reduce my optimization function uncertainty? I choose consults, draw the submission to their attention, and ask them questions. I iterate and converge." Versus drooling bot: "Uhh, a down vote click. Might be an expert, might be eternal September... duh, don't know, don't care. points--. Duh, done."

pwm 9y ago

My pet theory is that very few people visit /newest and even less are consistently and persistently active over there. This means that, in general, only a handful of people's inherently subjective taste steers the ship. I find this fascinating.

gpvos 9y ago

Bad luck. There aren't very many people looking at the new posts page, and posts drop off quite fast.

bfung 9y ago

Lessons learned: 1. Stop posting to HN and let others do it for you 2. Spend more effort in writing blog and less on HN karma 3. ... (monetize) 4. Profit!!! (+ more blog posts about how you monetized and instantly gain more HN karma than posting will ever do) </saracasm> =) upvoted for original content.

ridgewell 9y ago

Sorry! Didn't realize you already posted this before.