4 ms·

I link to HN discussions in my own posts, but I don't give a damn about the ranking algorithm, I just want to direct readers to a place where they can have a di

I link to HN discussions in my own posts, but I don't give a damn about the ranking algorithm, I just want to direct readers to a place where they can have a discussion. If HN is ignoring votes from them, or penalizing my pages, or what-have-you, that's their business. I like to write, I don;t want to have to spend a lot of time trying to reverse engineer every social media site's ranking algorithm to figure out when to post it, what to call it, and what types of links are acceptable. If HN really doesn't want people sending traffic their way, I hope they would put that in their guidelines.

diminoten 13y ago
HN isn't really a company in the sense that they don't have the same goals as a monetized website has - specifically, there isn't really a "drive" for users, or traffic. In fact there are many things HN does to actively discourage "general" users from joining/remaining part of the community. I offer no value judgement, I just wanted to be clear what is happening when a blog links to its HN submission directly like in this case, and even moreso to your latest point - HN doesn't give a hoot if you send traffic its way or not. It's very non-intuitive, I understand your confusion.
- raganwald 13y ago
  I'm not confused, and I don't expect them to have any desire for traffic. That's why I link to it even though there's more than a few people who believe it hurts the way my posts are ranked. They do their thing without giving a damn what I do, and I do my thing without giving a damn what they do. If they really don't want people linking to HN discussions, they'll ask people not to do that. They aren't shy about asking people not to flood the new queue, for example. If they're penalizing the votes or comments of people who come through direct links, well, that's their business and I presume they know what they're doing. I'm a writer, not a SEO consultant.

diminoten 13y ago

HN isn't really a company in the sense that they don't have the same goals as a monetized website has - specifically, there isn't really a "drive" for users, or traffic. In fact there are many things HN does to actively discourage "general" users from joining/remaining part of the community. I offer no value judgement, I just wanted to be clear what is happening when a blog links to its HN submission directly like in this case, and even moreso to your latest point - HN doesn't give a hoot if you send traffic its way or not. It's very non-intuitive, I understand your confusion.

raganwald 13y ago
I'm not confused, and I don't expect them to have any desire for traffic. That's why I link to it even though there's more than a few people who believe it hurts the way my posts are ranked. They do their thing without giving a damn what I do, and I do my thing without giving a damn what they do. If they really don't want people linking to HN discussions, they'll ask people not to do that. They aren't shy about asking people not to flood the new queue, for example. If they're penalizing the votes or comments of people who come through direct links, well, that's their business and I presume they know what they're doing. I'm a writer, not a SEO consultant.