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Only a small percentage of HN users actually apply to YC Slightly off-topic, but what about the inverse of that: how many YC applicants are active HN users [1]

Only a small percentage of HN users actually apply to YC Slightly off-topic, but what about the inverse of that: how many YC applicants are active HN users [1]? Just curious as to how much of the applicant pool comes from HN. 1. Since you have to create a HN account to apply, I'm assuming 100% of YC applicants are HN users, so maybe how many actively participate?

navanit 16y ago
Also interesting would be to get an idea of what percentage of people who get accepted into YC participate actively on HN.
- pg 16y ago
  That would be hard to reconstruct, because we don't keep track of people's karma at the point when we accept them, but we usually have 1 or 2 startups per batch with founders whose usernames I recognize as being top contributors. 6 of the 100 users on the leaderboard are YC founders.
  - mlLK 16y ago
    Yeah, I think YC applicants or founders is statically insignificant, but I think your total user base is just as insignificant as this since it doesn't tell us much about what stories are showing up on the front-page and who is saying what about it. Instead, considering you're still only interested in comments, what if you filtered your user base for anyone that has posted a comment in the last 30 days then extrapolated the proportion of comments posted given a threshold of karma or "days alive" on HN against everyone else in your user base. I think it's more revealing this way if you are interested in how increased traffic and site participation is effecting this 6% you mentioned above or that "days alive" value; IOW, how is increased traffic and new user participation effecting the rate at which this sample is posting comments? In the end, I don't think increased traffic is effecting the discussion to the extent that it really matters; I think what really keeps everyone else in check is the frequency at which older members are posting comments.
- bkrausz 16y ago
  I know my HN participation dropped offer during my summer in YC...understandably so given how busy I was. It's picked up more now and is probably about at the same level as before I started YC. I was amazed that PG recognized my username at the acceptance brunch...I guess his statistics might explain why (I had ~1,000 karma but it was built up from small posts/comments, nothing too controversial).
pg 16y ago
17% of people who've applied for w2011 have over 100 karma: > (let ids (applicant-ids "w2011") (percent (/ (count [> (uvar _ karma) 100] ids) (len ids)))) 17 6% have over 1000 karma.
- tyng 16y ago
  Does this percentage include other applying co-founders in the application, or just the lead applicants?
  - pg 16y ago
    Just the leads.
    - tyng 16y ago
      Cheers pg. The reason I asked was because when my cofounder and I submitted our application for w2011, we decided to use his account as the lead even though I had way more karma, which was due to him having a much cooler answer to the non-computer hack question specifically addressed at only the lead. Anyway, not that it matters since a good application is still a good one (and vice versa), but it's possible to find a higher YC/HN participation rate if you include the cofounders.

navanit 16y ago

Also interesting would be to get an idea of what percentage of people who get accepted into YC participate actively on HN.

pg 16y ago
That would be hard to reconstruct, because we don't keep track of people's karma at the point when we accept them, but we usually have 1 or 2 startups per batch with founders whose usernames I recognize as being top contributors. 6 of the 100 users on the leaderboard are YC founders.
- mlLK 16y ago
  Yeah, I think YC applicants or founders is statically insignificant, but I think your total user base is just as insignificant as this since it doesn't tell us much about what stories are showing up on the front-page and who is saying what about it. Instead, considering you're still only interested in comments, what if you filtered your user base for anyone that has posted a comment in the last 30 days then extrapolated the proportion of comments posted given a threshold of karma or "days alive" on HN against everyone else in your user base. I think it's more revealing this way if you are interested in how increased traffic and site participation is effecting this 6% you mentioned above or that "days alive" value; IOW, how is increased traffic and new user participation effecting the rate at which this sample is posting comments? In the end, I don't think increased traffic is effecting the discussion to the extent that it really matters; I think what really keeps everyone else in check is the frequency at which older members are posting comments.
bkrausz 16y ago
I know my HN participation dropped offer during my summer in YC...understandably so given how busy I was. It's picked up more now and is probably about at the same level as before I started YC. I was amazed that PG recognized my username at the acceptance brunch...I guess his statistics might explain why (I had ~1,000 karma but it was built up from small posts/comments, nothing too controversial).

pg 16y ago

17% of people who've applied for w2011 have over 100 karma: > (let ids (applicant-ids "w2011") (percent (/ (count [> (uvar _ karma) 100] ids) (len ids)))) 17 6% have over 1000 karma.

tyng 16y ago
Does this percentage include other applying co-founders in the application, or just the lead applicants?
- pg 16y ago
  Just the leads.
  - tyng 16y ago
    Cheers pg. The reason I asked was because when my cofounder and I submitted our application for w2011, we decided to use his account as the lead even though I had way more karma, which was due to him having a much cooler answer to the non-computer hack question specifically addressed at only the lead. Anyway, not that it matters since a good application is still a good one (and vice versa), but it's possible to find a higher YC/HN participation rate if you include the cofounders.