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On submissions: if you blocked global news websites, at least a quarter of the top posts would be gone. On comments: they could solve a shitload of the complai

On submissions: if you blocked global news websites, at least a quarter of the top posts would be gone. On comments: they could solve a shitload of the complaints about comments by just adding meta-votes, like those on Slashdot, and letting individual users define their own filters for what they do and don't want to see. Automating and letting the community manage itself would be so much more efficient and fair than relying on mods, or the extremely vague and unhelpful generic vote button.

tptacek 3y ago
Global news websites are, apparently, heavily downweighted. But they too often produce genuinely interesting stories to block entirely.
dredmorbius 3y ago
By my own research and classification, "general news" sites accounted for 4.1% of front-page stories on HN in 2022 (most recent complete year's data), and that percentage has fallen over the years (it was 8% in 2009), with a corresponding rise in programming-specific sites (GitHub/GitLab, and language-specific sites, e.g., "python.org" or "golang.org".) Sites classified as "general news" (ordered by frequency in the front-page archive): nytimes.com, bbc.com, bbc.co.uk, theguardian.com, washingtonpost.com, reuters.com, npr.org, cnn.com, slate.com, vice.com, latimes.com, cnet.com, yahoo.com, sfgate.com, cbc.ca, cnbc.com, guardian.co.uk, bits.blogs.nytimes.com, vox.com, salon.com, time.com, nymag.com, telegraph.co.uk, boston.com, newsweek.com, chronicle.com, msn.com, axios.com, news.com.com, propublica.org, independent.co.uk, timesonline.co.uk, mercurynews.com, theglobeandmail.com, pbs.org, theintercept.com, usatoday.com, buzzfeednews.com, spiegel.de, rollingstone.com, thestandard.com, go.com, smh.com.au, cbsnews.com, abc.net.au, nbcnews.com, seattletimes.com, aljazeera.com, bloombergview.com, motherjones.com, firstlook.org, thehill.com, apnews.com, informationweek.com, news.com, thedailybeast.com, huffingtonpost.com, theage.com.au, csmonitor.com, nwsource.com, japantimes.co.jp, thestar.com, bostonglobe.com, dw.com, indiatimes.com, nypost.com, ap.org, chicagotribune.com, sfchronicle.com, dailymail.co.uk, news.com.au, foxnews.com, kqed.org, theatlanticwire.com, scmp.com, texasmonthly.com, wbur.org, yahoo.net, swissinfo.ch, nationalpost.com, spectator.co.uk, sfweekly.com, detroitnews.com, theweek.com, nzherald.co.nz, washingtonexaminer.com, aljazeera.net, cbslocal.com, nltimes.nl, weeklystandard.com, ctvnews.ca, miamiherald.com, nydailynews.com, thetimes.co.uk, dallasnews.com, startribune.com, bostonherald.com, euronews.com, kuow.org, themorningnews.org, upi.com, globalnews.ca, guardiannews.com, theherald.com.au, thesun.co.uk, belfasttelegraph.co.uk, houstonchronicle.com, ibtimes.co.uk, koreaherald.com, metro.co.uk, mirror.co.uk, seattleweekly.com, standard.co.uk, dailyherald.com, huffingtonpost.co.uk, huffingtonpost.com.au, huffpost.com, inquirer.com, ktvu.com, ocweekly.com, sundayherald.com, theweek.co.uk, wpri.com, wtsp.com, americanchronicle.com, annarborchronicle.com, augustachronicle.com, catholicherald.co.uk, dukechronicle.com, heraldsun.com.au, katu.com, kdvr.com, kfor.com, ktla.com, myfox8.com, myfoxdc.com, myfoxny.com, news-herald.com, news.google.ca, pressherald.com, thechronicleherald.ca, timesherald.com, wttw.com, wtvr.com, wunc.org, wvgazette.com. This is based on downloading all archived HN front pages from 2007-02-20 through 2023-06-21 and analysing stories by title, site, votes, comments, and submitter.
- myroon5 3y ago
  Curious how financial-focused news that was excluded (economist, wsj, ft, bloomberg, etc) has fared. Wouldn't be surprised if that's a substantial portion
  - dredmorbius 3y ago
    I classify those as "business news", which were 1.5% of 2022 front-page stories, as compared to 3.7% in 2009. (I generally use 2009 as a representative "early year" as HN was sorting things out and evolving rapidly in 2007 & 2008.) By year: 2007 418 2008 438 2009 407 2010 290 2011 271 2012 222 2013 224 2014 259 2015 329 2016 442 2017 426 2018 476 2019 418 2020 251 2021 194 2022 167 2023 95 This is the first I've looked at these numbers specifically. I'm noting the substantial fall-off in 2020, which I suspect is paywall-related. Note that data for 2023 are partial. Sites: bloomberg.com, wsj.com, economist.com, venturebeat.com, businessweek.com, businessinsider.com, fastcompany.com, inc.com, hbr.org, ft.com, alleyinsider.com, forbes.com, fortune.com, nikkei.com, marketwatch.com, xconomy.com, entrepreneur.com, portfolio.com, business2.com, cio.com, bizjournals.com, bloombergquint.com, insidefacebook.com, nasdaq.com, fool.com, financialpost.com, prnewswire.com, adweek.com, morningstar.com, americanbanker.com, businessinsider.com.au, industryweek.com, bankertimes.com, businessinsider.co.za, businessinsider.de, businessinsider.fr, forbesindia.com As above, these are ordered by overall frequency within the FP archive.
    - dredmorbius 3y ago
      And for the curious, there's a third general category, "general interest", which I've applied to what are usually magazines, not specifically news/business or science-related. These are roughly 2% of front-page stories. Site list: theatlantic.com, newyorker.com, archive.org, smithsonianmag.com, qz.com, nationalgeographic.com, aeon.co, openculture.com, theconversation.com, might.net, theparisreview.org, vanityfair.com, ted.com, popularmechanics.com, laphamsquarterly.org, buzzfeed.com, fivethirtyeight.com, outsideonline.com, thehustle.co, newrepublic.com, foreignpolicy.com, harpers.org, esquire.com, longreads.com, newstatesman.com, lettersofnote.com, gq.com, thewalrus.ca, cjr.org, strongtowns.org, historytoday.com, variety.com, hyperallergic.com, 1843magazine.com, collectorsweekly.com, theamericanscholar.org, nplusonemag.com, bigthink.com, brainpickings.org, thenation.com, theoutline.com, theinformation.com, washingtonmonthly.com, macleans.ca, redherring.com, thenewatlantis.com, prospectmagazine.co.uk, quoteinvestigator.com, theawl.com, airspacemag.com, calvertjournal.com, canada.com, mensjournal.com, torontolife.com, thecorrespondent.com, thecritic.co.uk, britishmuseum.org, nationalgeographic.co.uk, publishersweekly.com, autoweek.com, folksonomy.org, laweekly.com, menshealth.com, rijksmuseum.nl, metmuseum.org, prospect-magazine.co.uk, wunderground.com, agweek.com, banksy.co.uk, banksyfilm.com, minnesotamonthly.com, openlettersmonthly.com (Again, by order of frequency in front-page stories.) This and other precentages are based on 35% of stories being unclassified, that is, coming from sites I've not explicitly tagged. Based on some random sampling of that pool, those are most often blogs or corporate sites. My classification for news, science/academic, and programming sites is generally more comprehensive as I'm able to leverage regex matches: "edu" and "ac" for academic, GitHub and GitLab domains for programming, for example, also station call-letter patterns such as [KW][A-Z][A-Z][A-Z]for the US for many general news sites.

tptacek 3y ago

Global news websites are, apparently, heavily downweighted. But they too often produce genuinely interesting stories to block entirely.

dredmorbius 3y ago

By my own research and classification, "general news" sites accounted for 4.1% of front-page stories on HN in 2022 (most recent complete year's data), and that percentage has fallen over the years (it was 8% in 2009), with a corresponding rise in programming-specific sites (GitHub/GitLab, and language-specific sites, e.g., "python.org" or "golang.org".) Sites classified as "general news" (ordered by frequency in the front-page archive): nytimes.com, bbc.com, bbc.co.uk, theguardian.com, washingtonpost.com, reuters.com, npr.org, cnn.com, slate.com, vice.com, latimes.com, cnet.com, yahoo.com, sfgate.com, cbc.ca, cnbc.com, guardian.co.uk, bits.blogs.nytimes.com, vox.com, salon.com, time.com, nymag.com, telegraph.co.uk, boston.com, newsweek.com, chronicle.com, msn.com, axios.com, news.com.com, propublica.org, independent.co.uk, timesonline.co.uk, mercurynews.com, theglobeandmail.com, pbs.org, theintercept.com, usatoday.com, buzzfeednews.com, spiegel.de, rollingstone.com, thestandard.com, go.com, smh.com.au, cbsnews.com, abc.net.au, nbcnews.com, seattletimes.com, aljazeera.com, bloombergview.com, motherjones.com, firstlook.org, thehill.com, apnews.com, informationweek.com, news.com, thedailybeast.com, huffingtonpost.com, theage.com.au, csmonitor.com, nwsource.com, japantimes.co.jp, thestar.com, bostonglobe.com, dw.com, indiatimes.com, nypost.com, ap.org, chicagotribune.com, sfchronicle.com, dailymail.co.uk, news.com.au, foxnews.com, kqed.org, theatlanticwire.com, scmp.com, texasmonthly.com, wbur.org, yahoo.net, swissinfo.ch, nationalpost.com, spectator.co.uk, sfweekly.com, detroitnews.com, theweek.com, nzherald.co.nz, washingtonexaminer.com, aljazeera.net, cbslocal.com, nltimes.nl, weeklystandard.com, ctvnews.ca, miamiherald.com, nydailynews.com, thetimes.co.uk, dallasnews.com, startribune.com, bostonherald.com, euronews.com, kuow.org, themorningnews.org, upi.com, globalnews.ca, guardiannews.com, theherald.com.au, thesun.co.uk, belfasttelegraph.co.uk, houstonchronicle.com, ibtimes.co.uk, koreaherald.com, metro.co.uk, mirror.co.uk, seattleweekly.com, standard.co.uk, dailyherald.com, huffingtonpost.co.uk, huffingtonpost.com.au, huffpost.com, inquirer.com, ktvu.com, ocweekly.com, sundayherald.com, theweek.co.uk, wpri.com, wtsp.com, americanchronicle.com, annarborchronicle.com, augustachronicle.com, catholicherald.co.uk, dukechronicle.com, heraldsun.com.au, katu.com, kdvr.com, kfor.com, ktla.com, myfox8.com, myfoxdc.com, myfoxny.com, news-herald.com, news.google.ca, pressherald.com, thechronicleherald.ca, timesherald.com, wttw.com, wtvr.com, wunc.org, wvgazette.com. This is based on downloading all archived HN front pages from 2007-02-20 through 2023-06-21 and analysing stories by title, site, votes, comments, and submitter.

myroon5 3y ago
Curious how financial-focused news that was excluded (economist, wsj, ft, bloomberg, etc) has fared. Wouldn't be surprised if that's a substantial portion
- dredmorbius 3y ago
  I classify those as "business news", which were 1.5% of 2022 front-page stories, as compared to 3.7% in 2009. (I generally use 2009 as a representative "early year" as HN was sorting things out and evolving rapidly in 2007 & 2008.) By year: 2007 418 2008 438 2009 407 2010 290 2011 271 2012 222 2013 224 2014 259 2015 329 2016 442 2017 426 2018 476 2019 418 2020 251 2021 194 2022 167 2023 95 This is the first I've looked at these numbers specifically. I'm noting the substantial fall-off in 2020, which I suspect is paywall-related. Note that data for 2023 are partial. Sites: bloomberg.com, wsj.com, economist.com, venturebeat.com, businessweek.com, businessinsider.com, fastcompany.com, inc.com, hbr.org, ft.com, alleyinsider.com, forbes.com, fortune.com, nikkei.com, marketwatch.com, xconomy.com, entrepreneur.com, portfolio.com, business2.com, cio.com, bizjournals.com, bloombergquint.com, insidefacebook.com, nasdaq.com, fool.com, financialpost.com, prnewswire.com, adweek.com, morningstar.com, americanbanker.com, businessinsider.com.au, industryweek.com, bankertimes.com, businessinsider.co.za, businessinsider.de, businessinsider.fr, forbesindia.com As above, these are ordered by overall frequency within the FP archive.
  - dredmorbius 3y ago
    And for the curious, there's a third general category, "general interest", which I've applied to what are usually magazines, not specifically news/business or science-related. These are roughly 2% of front-page stories. Site list: theatlantic.com, newyorker.com, archive.org, smithsonianmag.com, qz.com, nationalgeographic.com, aeon.co, openculture.com, theconversation.com, might.net, theparisreview.org, vanityfair.com, ted.com, popularmechanics.com, laphamsquarterly.org, buzzfeed.com, fivethirtyeight.com, outsideonline.com, thehustle.co, newrepublic.com, foreignpolicy.com, harpers.org, esquire.com, longreads.com, newstatesman.com, lettersofnote.com, gq.com, thewalrus.ca, cjr.org, strongtowns.org, historytoday.com, variety.com, hyperallergic.com, 1843magazine.com, collectorsweekly.com, theamericanscholar.org, nplusonemag.com, bigthink.com, brainpickings.org, thenation.com, theoutline.com, theinformation.com, washingtonmonthly.com, macleans.ca, redherring.com, thenewatlantis.com, prospectmagazine.co.uk, quoteinvestigator.com, theawl.com, airspacemag.com, calvertjournal.com, canada.com, mensjournal.com, torontolife.com, thecorrespondent.com, thecritic.co.uk, britishmuseum.org, nationalgeographic.co.uk, publishersweekly.com, autoweek.com, folksonomy.org, laweekly.com, menshealth.com, rijksmuseum.nl, metmuseum.org, prospect-magazine.co.uk, wunderground.com, agweek.com, banksy.co.uk, banksyfilm.com, minnesotamonthly.com, openlettersmonthly.com (Again, by order of frequency in front-page stories.) This and other precentages are based on 35% of stories being unclassified, that is, coming from sites I've not explicitly tagged. Based on some random sampling of that pool, those are most often blogs or corporate sites. My classification for news, science/academic, and programming sites is generally more comprehensive as I'm able to leverage regex matches: "edu" and "ac" for academic, GitHub and GitLab domains for programming, for example, also station call-letter patterns such as [KW][A-Z][A-Z][A-Z]for the US for many general news sites.