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> "PG doesn't care about HN's search listings" Yup. re: "Why does HN have a relatively low Google PageRank?" "Probably because we restrict their crawlers. Bu

by Crito 13y ago

> "PG doesn't care about HN's search listings" Yup. re: "Why does HN have a relatively low Google PageRank?" "Probably because we restrict their crawlers. But this is an excellent side effect, because the last thing I want is traffic from Google searches." https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5808990 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5808990 If you need to search for something that you know was on HN, HNSearch is a great tool. I use it all the time.

guyinblackshirt 13y ago
>> HNSearch is a great tool. I use it all the time. Agreed - so is pinboard's search for #hn tags
rangibaby 13y ago
Thanks for pointing out HNSearch. site:news.ycombinator.com (whatever) works nicely with Google too.
- cheapsteak 13y ago
  Not really. There were plenty of times when I tried to find an article a few days back but google was coming up blank even with `site:news.ycombinator.com`. Had to resort to scrolling through HN's facebook bot page (posts all the front-paged links)
6cxs2hd6 13y ago
> "Probably because we restrict their crawlers. But this is an excellent side effect, because the last thing I want is traffic from Google searches." Am I the only one who finds that puzzling? This isn't Fight Club. It's not even Entrepreneur Club. It's a bunch of generally smart people talking about technology, with an emphasis on making money from it. It's one of my favorite sites, and I love it, but it's not an invitation-only club, is it? (I also find it weird that one of the go-to sites for web-savvy people would be like, "yeah, screw status codes and how the open, linked, web is supposed to work".) To be clear, I'm not Protesting a Great Evil. I just find it puzzling, as in, "That's odd, I must not understand what this is all about, after all."
- Crito 13y ago
  I can't speak for PG, but I think the general idea is that a slow influx of new users is less likely to alter the nature of HN as everyone has a chance to acclimatize (avoiding some sort of Eternal September), and the people who really "need" to be on HN (people interested in startups I guess?) will know about HN already, or be told about it. That last part might be a little "fightclub-ish" I guess, but it seems to be working alright.
  - buttsex 13y ago
    Couldn't he just turn off registrations for new accounts? Not saying he needs to get HN to the top for a "startup" search query. I found HN by a Google search while looking for a good laptop to run Linux on.
    - supergauntlet 13y ago
      That happens. When too many people register accounts they're locked for the rest of the day and the register account option is no longer there, only login.
      - Crito 13y ago
        IIRC sometimes the "Create Account" section of the login page is missing, but can still be accessed through https://new.ycombinator.com/submit https://new.ycombinator.com/submit That's not how it is right now so I'm not sure if I am remembering it correctly.
        kgermino 13y ago
        IIRC (I might search for it later) that was a spambot fix. Apparently it was fairly effective - I presume the bots were smart enough to find the 'login' link on the front page then register an account from there but not much else.
- milkshakes 13y ago

by Crito 13y ago

guyinblackshirt 13y ago

>> HNSearch is a great tool. I use it all the time. Agreed - so is pinboard's search for #hn tags

rangibaby 13y ago

Thanks for pointing out HNSearch. site:news.ycombinator.com (whatever) works nicely with Google too.

cheapsteak 13y ago
Not really. There were plenty of times when I tried to find an article a few days back but google was coming up blank even with `site:news.ycombinator.com`. Had to resort to scrolling through HN's facebook bot page (posts all the front-paged links)

6cxs2hd6 13y ago

> "Probably because we restrict their crawlers. But this is an excellent side effect, because the last thing I want is traffic from Google searches." Am I the only one who finds that puzzling? This isn't Fight Club. It's not even Entrepreneur Club. It's a bunch of generally smart people talking about technology, with an emphasis on making money from it. It's one of my favorite sites, and I love it, but it's not an invitation-only club, is it? (I also find it weird that one of the go-to sites for web-savvy people would be like, "yeah, screw status codes and how the open, linked, web is supposed to work".) To be clear, I'm not Protesting a Great Evil. I just find it puzzling, as in, "That's odd, I must not understand what this is all about, after all."

Crito 13y ago
I can't speak for PG, but I think the general idea is that a slow influx of new users is less likely to alter the nature of HN as everyone has a chance to acclimatize (avoiding some sort of Eternal September), and the people who really "need" to be on HN (people interested in startups I guess?) will know about HN already, or be told about it. That last part might be a little "fightclub-ish" I guess, but it seems to be working alright.
- buttsex 13y ago
  Couldn't he just turn off registrations for new accounts? Not saying he needs to get HN to the top for a "startup" search query. I found HN by a Google search while looking for a good laptop to run Linux on.
  - supergauntlet 13y ago
    That happens. When too many people register accounts they're locked for the rest of the day and the register account option is no longer there, only login.
    - Crito 13y ago
      IIRC sometimes the "Create Account" section of the login page is missing, but can still be accessed through https://new.ycombinator.com/submit https://new.ycombinator.com/submit That's not how it is right now so I'm not sure if I am remembering it correctly.
      - kgermino 13y ago
        IIRC (I might search for it later) that was a spambot fix. Apparently it was fairly effective - I presume the bots were smart enough to find the 'login' link on the front page then register an account from there but not much else.
milkshakes 13y ago