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Ask HN: What makes a thread go on the HN front page
Is it based on algorithm or manned by an editor?
I want to know because I use HN as my daily tech news feed, so I'm curious about the principles of what gets recommended.
- preek 16y agoIt's certainly an algorithm. If enough people vote for an article, it will go to the front page. It helps if those people have a lot of karma points.
- tyng 16y agoBut I've seen articles with 0 comment and only 9 upvotes appear on the front page, while there are threads with more comments and upvotes not getting noticed.
- michael_dorfman 16y agoThe algorithm, crudely speaking, is based on upvotes and age. Nine upvotes in a short enough period of time will get a story to the #1 position; nine upvotes over many hours might not get a story on the front page at all (depending on the other stories.) If you want to see the details, check out the Arc source code.
- jasonlbaptiste 16y agoIt's certainly not the getting on the front page that matters the most, it's staying there.