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How I Found The Most Influential Users on Hacker News
- h2odragon 4y agoUsers rarely submit stories they've written, tho. "Self promotion" tends to work poorly here. Perhaps this study should look at comments, instead?
- taubek 4y agoI think that the algorithm does a good job at gate keeping self promotion off HN.
- taubek 4y agoSo that it doesn't get confused, I'm not the author. I've left original title :)
- chiefalchemist 4y ago> I concluded that the story with more comments eventually stays on the first page longer, making the topic more interesting and influential. I always duck when I parse words on HN but...that doesn't describe interesting and influential. That's the text book definition of popularity. It worth mentioning that the voting system creates a bias. "I up voted the story, it must me good. Now that I know that it's good I'm inclined to comment." Or vice versa. That is, those two signals (i.e., post up votes and post comments) aren't as independent as they appear. We all know there's a "sweet spot" on HN, as as there is in any community. That's not a bad thing. Humans are human. HN humans are just as predictable as any other. Don't get me wrong, interesting premise. But there are some caveats worth keeping in mind.
- taubek 4y agoFor me, when it comes to effort and HN activities my list is: 1. Upvote 2. Post new story 3. Leave a comment To upvote it takes almost no effort, but to write a good comments it takes a lot of time. And it puts you out to the public eyes, you are prone to comments and not everyone is conferrable about that. I like the anonymity of upvotes on HN.