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How Hacker News ranking really works: scoring, controversy, and penalties
- WalterSear 13y agoHmm. I wonder: there's no cutoff for the controversial filter? Meaning a post with only one vote and two comments is considered controversial?
- kens 13y agoNo, it only applies when there are 40 comments or more.
- WalterSear 13y agoDoh! I missed that.
- mbennett 13y agoThe article did say that 40 comments is the minimum cut-off before the flamewar penalty is applied. However, the flamewar detector seems to be throwing the baby with the bathwater in many cases, with legitimate stories going off the front page(and then some posters mistakenly assuming it was because of flagging). Here's a very good post about the chilling effect of the flamewar detector. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6597049 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6597049
- kens 13y agoIronically, my article has been penalized off the front page. Based on its raw score, it should be about #6 but it is currently #32.
- DanBC 13y agoDoes "Hacker News" in the title apply a hefty anti-meta penalty? Or is it just people flagging anything about moderation, fearing the typical empty speculation? (That doesn't apply to your post, it's interesting and has lots of supporting data.)
- Houshalter 13y agoReally interesting how you figured that out. The penalties strike me as unfair and pretty arbitrary. I like articles with more discussion for example.