3 ms·

HN is not a “greatest 80s hits” radio, though. Users submit links and users vote on them. There is nobody making editorial decisions about what goes on the fron

HN is not a “greatest 80s hits” radio, though. Users submit links and users vote on them. There is nobody making editorial decisions about what goes on the front page, beyond extreme cases. Sure, there is some tweaking, but in the end it’s all stories posted and upvoted by us, collectively. So it is entirely pointless to whine about the content: it is what the community wants to see.

pvg 5y ago
There is nobody making editorial decisions about what goes on the front page, beyond extreme cases. HN is more actively moderated than this, you can find piles of moderator comments about it.
- dsr_ 5y ago
  YC companies can put in an submission; it goes to the front page but sinks fairly rapidly and can't be commented on. I think that these are usually employment ads. I also think that's the only direct placement, but I can't be certain.
  - arp242 5y ago
    There's more than that. Actually, this story mentions it: > Moderators and a small number of reviewer users comb the depths of /newest looking for stories that got overlooked but which the community might find interesting. Those go into a second-chance pool from which stories are randomly selected and lobbed onto the bottom part of the front page. This guarantees them a few minutes of attention. If they don’t interest the community they soon fall off, but if they do, they get upvoted and stay on the front page.
- kergonath 5y ago
  There is the second chance, but stories that don’t resonate disappear quickly even after that. I included this in the tweaking the mods can do. I guess I went a bit far about editorialising, but it’s still a minor effect.
  - pvg 5y ago
    I don't think it's a minor effect and without quite a bit of active fiddling, the front page would be full of meta, dupes and pitchfork-fetching-exhortations. This even comes up in a mod comment in this very thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29028421 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29028421
    - kergonath 5y ago
      Interesting perspective, thank you. Though it's more about removing things from the front page than putting there things that people don't want.

pvg 5y ago

There is nobody making editorial decisions about what goes on the front page, beyond extreme cases. HN is more actively moderated than this, you can find piles of moderator comments about it.

dsr_ 5y ago
YC companies can put in an submission; it goes to the front page but sinks fairly rapidly and can't be commented on. I think that these are usually employment ads. I also think that's the only direct placement, but I can't be certain.
- arp242 5y ago
  There's more than that. Actually, this story mentions it: > Moderators and a small number of reviewer users comb the depths of /newest looking for stories that got overlooked but which the community might find interesting. Those go into a second-chance pool from which stories are randomly selected and lobbed onto the bottom part of the front page. This guarantees them a few minutes of attention. If they don’t interest the community they soon fall off, but if they do, they get upvoted and stay on the front page.
kergonath 5y ago
There is the second chance, but stories that don’t resonate disappear quickly even after that. I included this in the tweaking the mods can do. I guess I went a bit far about editorialising, but it’s still a minor effect.
- pvg 5y ago
  I don't think it's a minor effect and without quite a bit of active fiddling, the front page would be full of meta, dupes and pitchfork-fetching-exhortations. This even comes up in a mod comment in this very thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29028421 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29028421
  - kergonath 5y ago
    Interesting perspective, thank you. Though it's more about removing things from the front page than putting there things that people don't want.