15 ms·

Trends in Show HN posts

93 points by karimf 6y ago

saagarjha 6y ago
Ever wondered if Hacker News has vote inflation? https://toddwschneider.com/dashboards/hacker-news-trends/?q=.*&f=title&s=exact_case_insensitive&m=items_score&t=month https://toddwschneider.com/dashboards/hacker-news-trends/?q=...
- drwl 6y ago
  It would make a lot of sense if the number of active users have grown over the years. Which I suspect it has.
- pmiller2 6y ago
  Not sure exactly what you mean by "vote inflation," but, IMO, all that graph is showing is that there are more people voting on more things these days. That seems kind of obvious. If you divided those numbers by total number of active users (alternatively, active posters, if total user counts aren't available), then you'd get something that would signal whether there's been "vote inflation" or not, IMO.
  - saagarjha 6y ago
    > Not sure exactly what you mean by "vote inflation," The fairly literal definition of "posts on the front page get more votes than they used to", which is usually the effect of more users being on the site but occasionally also users upvoting more than they used to.
- dang 6y ago
  I don't know about vote inflation but I'm pretty sure we need some karma inflation. New users need easier ways to get in the game. (Of course karma is silly and no one cares very much about it, but it's not nothing, and as long as we have it we should have a system with better circulation.)
  - marceloabsousa 6y ago
    As a new user for sure I find it hard to get into the game - it would be nice if there was more information on how to do that.
    - dang 6y ago
      By far the best way is to submit articles that the community will find interesting. Successful submissions are the way to karma riches. If you want to play that game, looking at past front pages (click 'past' in the top bar) is a good way to get a feel for what the community likes. From a quality point of view, the best submissions are on obscure topics that haven't been discussed much before. But quality and karma-earning aren't exactly the same thing!
      - saagarjha 6y ago
        On the contrary, I think that commenting has shown itself to be a faster, easier, and more consistent way to gain karma.
        dang 6y ago
        It wasn't the last time I looked at this but that was a long time ago. Actually the main thing I think karma measures is time spent on HN (at least among the minority who make posts).
        saagarjha 6y ago
        As someone who spends far too long on the site, I would tend to agree.
        jedberg 6y ago
        Anecdotally I'd say links are way better. 95%+ of my karma comes from comments, but one good link can net you 100's of karma points, whereas the very best comments ever might get you 60-70. Writing comments is easier, but links are definitely more bang for the buck if that's what you're going for.
lettergram 6y ago
Looks similar to something I built: https://hnprofile.com/compare?search=ruby,python https://hnprofile.com/compare?search=ruby,python Note the rules for "Show HN" state: > Show HN is a way to share something that you've made on Hacker News. and/or > Show HN is for something you've made that other people can play with. HN users can try it out, give you feedback, and ask questions in the thread. https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html The person who submitted does not appear to be the original author (who is Todd W. Schneider). Interesting content though.
- johnmaguire2013 6y ago
  Are you suggesting this post goes against the rules because the submitter didn't create it? This post is not a Show HN.
  - darrenf 6y ago
    No, but its original title started with "Show HN" which misled me at the time (and perhaps the poster to whom you're replying).
    - karimf 6y ago
      Well, I was trying to be a bit clever. I thought that by removing the colon after "Show HN" part, I could use it as a subject. The original title was "Show HN Trends on Hacker News." But that caused a lot of confusions indeed. Glad that dang has changed the title to be a more appropriate one.
      - lettergram 6y ago
        Ah I see - that makes sense in retrospect! Not at the time though haha
dan-robertson 6y ago
I wish there were some more analysis of the trends but lots of interesting analysis would be hard to do. I had a quick search and found some trends. eg, lisp decreased in popularity, overtaken by clojure then Haskell, then peak JS, but my memory of HN was that lisp articles were reasonably common until 2015 at least, Haskell had a peak around 2012-2016 and in the early 2010s there were loads of articles about all the different web frameworks. I see a lot less of all of those things today. Probably the biggest increase has been in current affairs. There was also a period around 2016 when articles from literary magazines (<city> review [of books]) were popular, typically articles about politics more than books. I don’t see them so much either, I barely even see articles from the new Yorker anymore. The problem with using this site to look for some of those things is that those things were usually not mentioned in the title. I’m glad that HN still has a lot of “mystery” titles where you don’t know what you’re going to get when you click a link.
jameslk 6y ago
The recent uptick in Show HN posts since the coronavirus pandemic started is interesting. I have some guesses why this is occurring (WFH, layoffs, new problems to solve) but it would be interesting to know exactly what's driving it.
dang 6y ago
I'm glad to see Show HNs ticking up a bit. We've been putting more effort into finding good ones that fall through the cracks. Anyone who wants to help with that should browse https://news.ycombinator.com/shownew https://news.ycombinator.com/shownew. If you see a Show HN (or any submission!) that's particularly good and isn't getting attention, let us know at hn@ycombinator.com. We'll take a look and maybe put it in the second-chance pool (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11662380 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11662380), so it will get a random placement on HN's front page. The best such suggestions come from people who aren't personally connected to the article or project, but just ran across it.
- airstrike 6y ago
  > Anyone who wants to help with that should browse https://news.ycombinator.com/shownew https://news.ycombinator.com/shownew. And as you browse, it's worth keeping the Show HN guidelines in mind, particularly those around commenting https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html (which I actually had never seen before clicking on that spike in 2014...)
giarc 6y ago
It's a cool tool but my main reason for commenting is to say how quick and fast the graph updates! Good work.
jedberg 6y ago
> Show HN: This up votes itself Ironic that that is still number one. A shady way to submit a bug, but props to HN for not burying it or punishing the submitter.
- kick 6y ago
  Shady? It's great. Little increases site culture in a more positive way than a community taking advantage of a flaw in the software it's running on, especially on a site wanting to encourage curiosity like HN. I'm surprised you disagree; reddit had some of the coolest examples of this: https://old.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/2pnpu/_/ https://old.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/2pnpu/_/
  - jedberg 6y ago
    I disagree specifically because I've been on the receiving end enough times to know that as fun as it is, it's a huge pain in the ass for the devs who have to scramble to fix it before someone exploits it for evil.
    - kick 6y ago
      If reddit wouldn't have moved away from Lisp, maybe you wouldn't have had to scramble to fix it. HN (as an example of a site that didn't move away from Lisp) fixes are always fairly quick, and the site has rarely had downtime.
      - deleted 6y ago
        [deleted]
pedalpete 6y ago
What caused the huge spike in 2014? Seems only one of the top voted items was around that time.

93 points by karimf 6y ago

Ever wondered if Hacker News has vote inflation? https://toddwschneider.com/dashboards/hacker-news-trends/?q=.*&f=title&s=exact_case_insensitive&m=items_score&t=month https://toddwschneider.com/dashboards/hacker-news-trends/?q=...

drwl 6y ago
It would make a lot of sense if the number of active users have grown over the years. Which I suspect it has.
pmiller2 6y ago
Not sure exactly what you mean by "vote inflation," but, IMO, all that graph is showing is that there are more people voting on more things these days. That seems kind of obvious. If you divided those numbers by total number of active users (alternatively, active posters, if total user counts aren't available), then you'd get something that would signal whether there's been "vote inflation" or not, IMO.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  > Not sure exactly what you mean by "vote inflation," The fairly literal definition of "posts on the front page get more votes than they used to", which is usually the effect of more users being on the site but occasionally also users upvoting more than they used to.
dang 6y ago
I don't know about vote inflation but I'm pretty sure we need some karma inflation. New users need easier ways to get in the game. (Of course karma is silly and no one cares very much about it, but it's not nothing, and as long as we have it we should have a system with better circulation.)
- marceloabsousa 6y ago
  As a new user for sure I find it hard to get into the game - it would be nice if there was more information on how to do that.
  - dang 6y ago
    By far the best way is to submit articles that the community will find interesting. Successful submissions are the way to karma riches. If you want to play that game, looking at past front pages (click 'past' in the top bar) is a good way to get a feel for what the community likes. From a quality point of view, the best submissions are on obscure topics that haven't been discussed much before. But quality and karma-earning aren't exactly the same thing!
    - saagarjha 6y ago
      On the contrary, I think that commenting has shown itself to be a faster, easier, and more consistent way to gain karma.
      - dang 6y ago
        It wasn't the last time I looked at this but that was a long time ago. Actually the main thing I think karma measures is time spent on HN (at least among the minority who make posts).
        saagarjha 6y ago
        As someone who spends far too long on the site, I would tend to agree.
      - jedberg 6y ago
        Anecdotally I'd say links are way better. 95%+ of my karma comes from comments, but one good link can net you 100's of karma points, whereas the very best comments ever might get you 60-70. Writing comments is easier, but links are definitely more bang for the buck if that's what you're going for.

lettergram 6y ago

Looks similar to something I built: https://hnprofile.com/compare?search=ruby,python https://hnprofile.com/compare?search=ruby,python Note the rules for "Show HN" state: > Show HN is a way to share something that you've made on Hacker News. and/or > Show HN is for something you've made that other people can play with. HN users can try it out, give you feedback, and ask questions in the thread. https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html The person who submitted does not appear to be the original author (who is Todd W. Schneider). Interesting content though.

johnmaguire2013 6y ago
Are you suggesting this post goes against the rules because the submitter didn't create it? This post is not a Show HN.
- darrenf 6y ago
  No, but its original title started with "Show HN" which misled me at the time (and perhaps the poster to whom you're replying).
  - karimf 6y ago
    Well, I was trying to be a bit clever. I thought that by removing the colon after "Show HN" part, I could use it as a subject. The original title was "Show HN Trends on Hacker News." But that caused a lot of confusions indeed. Glad that dang has changed the title to be a more appropriate one.
    - lettergram 6y ago
      Ah I see - that makes sense in retrospect! Not at the time though haha

dan-robertson 6y ago

I wish there were some more analysis of the trends but lots of interesting analysis would be hard to do. I had a quick search and found some trends. eg, lisp decreased in popularity, overtaken by clojure then Haskell, then peak JS, but my memory of HN was that lisp articles were reasonably common until 2015 at least, Haskell had a peak around 2012-2016 and in the early 2010s there were loads of articles about all the different web frameworks. I see a lot less of all of those things today. Probably the biggest increase has been in current affairs. There was also a period around 2016 when articles from literary magazines (<city> review [of books]) were popular, typically articles about politics more than books. I don’t see them so much either, I barely even see articles from the new Yorker anymore. The problem with using this site to look for some of those things is that those things were usually not mentioned in the title. I’m glad that HN still has a lot of “mystery” titles where you don’t know what you’re going to get when you click a link.

jameslk 6y ago

The recent uptick in Show HN posts since the coronavirus pandemic started is interesting. I have some guesses why this is occurring (WFH, layoffs, new problems to solve) but it would be interesting to know exactly what's driving it.

dang 6y ago

I'm glad to see Show HNs ticking up a bit. We've been putting more effort into finding good ones that fall through the cracks. Anyone who wants to help with that should browse https://news.ycombinator.com/shownew https://news.ycombinator.com/shownew. If you see a Show HN (or any submission!) that's particularly good and isn't getting attention, let us know at hn@ycombinator.com. We'll take a look and maybe put it in the second-chance pool (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11662380 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11662380), so it will get a random placement on HN's front page. The best such suggestions come from people who aren't personally connected to the article or project, but just ran across it.

airstrike 6y ago
> Anyone who wants to help with that should browse https://news.ycombinator.com/shownew https://news.ycombinator.com/shownew. And as you browse, it's worth keeping the Show HN guidelines in mind, particularly those around commenting https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html (which I actually had never seen before clicking on that spike in 2014...)

giarc 6y ago

It's a cool tool but my main reason for commenting is to say how quick and fast the graph updates! Good work.

jedberg 6y ago

> Show HN: This up votes itself Ironic that that is still number one. A shady way to submit a bug, but props to HN for not burying it or punishing the submitter.

kick 6y ago
Shady? It's great. Little increases site culture in a more positive way than a community taking advantage of a flaw in the software it's running on, especially on a site wanting to encourage curiosity like HN. I'm surprised you disagree; reddit had some of the coolest examples of this: https://old.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/2pnpu/_/ https://old.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/2pnpu/_/
- jedberg 6y ago
  I disagree specifically because I've been on the receiving end enough times to know that as fun as it is, it's a huge pain in the ass for the devs who have to scramble to fix it before someone exploits it for evil.
  - kick 6y ago
    If reddit wouldn't have moved away from Lisp, maybe you wouldn't have had to scramble to fix it. HN (as an example of a site that didn't move away from Lisp) fixes are always fairly quick, and the site has rarely had downtime.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]

pedalpete 6y ago

What caused the huge spike in 2014? Seems only one of the top voted items was around that time.