You can tell that the article has been penalized by comparing it with the articles above it. Currently this article is at #7 with 168 points and 2 hours. The #6

You can tell that the article has been penalized by comparing it with the articles above it. Currently this article is at #7 with 168 points and 2 hours. The #6 article is at 179 points and 6 hours. The #5 article is at 172 points and 4 hours. Because time is weighted heavily (an exponent of 1.8), the NSA article would easily rank above these ones if there are no penalties. Thus, due to penalties, the NSA article is ranking a few spots below where it should, but is still on the front page. Source: I did the righto.com analysis of how HN ranking really works.