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One undocumented heuristic that I wish was documented better is that repeated submissions to the same domain, especially without discussion activity, leads to a

One undocumented heuristic that I wish was documented better is that repeated submissions to the same domain, especially without discussion activity, leads to an automated shadow ban. This is just from what I’ve observed browsing /new with Show Dead turned on. There are lots of people submitting their own blog posts or repeated posts from their favorite news outlets who have been shadow banned. Vouching provides a mechanism for restoring posts of particular quality, but most of these people aren’t trying to spam, they just don’t know this unspoken rule.

dang 3y ago
That's connected to this guideline (from https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html): "Please don't use HN primarily for promotion. It's ok to post your own stuff part of the time, but the primary use of the site should be for curiosity." If people submit primarily their own stuff, our software eventually starts classifying the account as "promotional" and starts filtering the posts. People are totally welcome to submit their own work—that's great—but to use HN as intended, they should do that as part of a diverse set of submissions on unrelated/interesting things. There are too many bloggers/marketers/writers out there that use HN merely as yet-another-channel for the content they're pushing, and that's definitely not in the curious spirit which is supposed to animate HN.
- raldi 3y ago
  As we used to say at the other site, it’s okay to be a redditor with a website; it’s not okay to be a website with a reddit account.
  - dang 3y ago
    That's a nice way to put it!
- NooneAtAll3 3y ago
  there's a slight difference between "your own stuff" and "same domain"... I don't know how many false positives would fans/people with narrow sharing interest make, but slight editing of the guideline might help make them less "false"
  - dang 3y ago
    I'm not sure that makes much difference from a quality-of-HN point of view. That is, if an account is (mostly) posting a single domain, and also is (mostly) the only account posting that domain, that doesn't seem to me so different from using HN "primarily for promotion". Or did I misunderstand you?
    - NooneAtAll3 3y ago
      I'm not suggesting to change the filter, I'm suggesting to add this to the guideline

dang 3y ago

That's connected to this guideline (from https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html): "Please don't use HN primarily for promotion. It's ok to post your own stuff part of the time, but the primary use of the site should be for curiosity." If people submit primarily their own stuff, our software eventually starts classifying the account as "promotional" and starts filtering the posts. People are totally welcome to submit their own work—that's great—but to use HN as intended, they should do that as part of a diverse set of submissions on unrelated/interesting things. There are too many bloggers/marketers/writers out there that use HN merely as yet-another-channel for the content they're pushing, and that's definitely not in the curious spirit which is supposed to animate HN.

raldi 3y ago
As we used to say at the other site, it’s okay to be a redditor with a website; it’s not okay to be a website with a reddit account.
- dang 3y ago
  That's a nice way to put it!
NooneAtAll3 3y ago
there's a slight difference between "your own stuff" and "same domain"... I don't know how many false positives would fans/people with narrow sharing interest make, but slight editing of the guideline might help make them less "false"
- dang 3y ago
  I'm not sure that makes much difference from a quality-of-HN point of view. That is, if an account is (mostly) posting a single domain, and also is (mostly) the only account posting that domain, that doesn't seem to me so different from using HN "primarily for promotion". Or did I misunderstand you?
  - NooneAtAll3 3y ago
    I'm not suggesting to change the filter, I'm suggesting to add this to the guideline