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Sam I think you have great power to give /newest more views if you'd consider minor redesigns. Perhaps you could dither stories so the front-page list goes top

Sam I think you have great power to give /newest more views if you'd consider minor redesigns. Perhaps you could dither stories so the front-page list goes top/new/top/new/top/new, etc, but that is potentially very messy. Or perhaps instead, the front-page can show 30 top stories, then a line break, then 30 new stories, all on the front page. Long-scrolling pages are in fashion, after all. These aren't well-developed ideas, but the point remains that the inertia of being one click away means that a huge percentage of people will never even look at /newest, never-mind up-vote interesting stories. Please consider changes to modify the median behavior. It's within your power and would do us all good. It's worth an experiment, isn't it?

privong 12y ago
Another option is a 2-column layout (for non-mobile devices). The normal front page on the left, with the blast of new articles in the right column. Perhaps for mobile devices the new articles could go under the top stories, with some sort of obvious demarcation between them.
- adamnemecek 12y ago
  This seems like the best option to me.
- jkbyc 12y ago
  It's even already implemented as the Hacker News UX extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-ux/chngbdmhgakoomomnnhfapkpbalpmhid https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-ux/chn... I like it a lot, it would be great to have it that way by default.
schrodinger 12y ago
I really like this idea. Just occasionally throw in some random "new" pages to users and see what gets read / upvoted. I'm sure that most users don't check the "new" page.
tlrobinson 12y ago
I like the idea of simply appending a subset of the /new stories to the end of the front page. Make it clear they're brand new (should also be obvious from the low vote count).
huhtenberg 12y ago
Just splice a random /newest entry into a front page on every load. This gets extra eyes on them and helps float good stories up. Optionally mark them green, just like HN currently marks noob users.
- tptacek 12y ago
  If you have ideas on how to improve the front page, a great thing to do is to send them to hn@ycombinator.com. Dan and Nick are super responsive, and you might be able to have a more productive conversation in email than on a thread.
  - huhtenberg 12y ago
    Posting it here helps accumulating other people upvotes, which, presumably, Dan and Nick can see on their end. It also opens subject to a wider discussion, which is hardly a bad thing. Meta threads are pretty damn useful if you ask me.
    - tptacek 12y ago
      I agree, and I actually like the meta-threads, but I've had much more success talking to Dan privately than I have in trying to motivate changes with public comments. I think if you're really serious about a suggestion, mailing Dan is the right way to go. If there's one consistent thing I've read from Dan in his tenure of publicly moderating the site, it's "please mail hn@ycombinator.com about this stuff". I'm just heading him off here. :)
      - deleted 12y ago
        [deleted]
- toomuchtodo 12y ago
  > Optionally mark them green, just like HN currently marks noob users. Love this suggestion. +1
- Timsalabim 12y ago
chrisdevereux 12y ago
I like the idea of adding a sample of new stories to the front. It would guarantee a number of extremely low quality submissions on the front though, which might affect the overall percieved quality of HN. It also might be a problem if simply submitting to HN guarantees a decent number of pageviews.
- DanBC 12y ago
  Perhaps new, but filtered to exclude certain sites that get a lot of attention here anyway.
sama 12y ago
good ideas here and in the responses. we will consider.
- sharemywin 12y ago
  any thoughts on actually creating a discussion board/forum. because there are a fair many of those types of posts. (Show HN, questions etc.)But,there are a lot of news/off site type posts and they don't seem to go together.
- willvarfar 12y ago
  somewhat related, you could use collaborative filtering. I've blogged about my thoughts and experiments with it in the past: http://williamedwardscoder.tumblr.com/post/15581427232/self-organizing-reddit http://williamedwardscoder.tumblr.com/post/15581427232/self-... You can show some random unrated stories at the very top of the list, and then stories sorted by collaborative filtering. In my prototyping it worked super-well.
  - TeMPOraL 12y ago
    Interesting concept. One think that popped to my mind immediately is that you need to avoid accidentally creating filter bubbles, i.e. locking everyone in their own personalized stream that shows only what they like and already agree with. It's dangerous for the mind. Another thing is that a lot of value people like me derive from hanging out here are the random things you get to discover here - things that one wouldn't ever think about before and thus never upvote something similar. So it would be good to leave some place to splice in some random submissions that are not related to one's personal preferences.
    - willvarfar 12y ago
      Re filter bubbling, the scheme as envisaged actually broadens it. It shows some random unrated stories at the very top of the list so everyone is constantly exposed to things not in their filter bubble deliberately.
  - 12y ago

privong 12y ago

Another option is a 2-column layout (for non-mobile devices). The normal front page on the left, with the blast of new articles in the right column. Perhaps for mobile devices the new articles could go under the top stories, with some sort of obvious demarcation between them.

adamnemecek 12y ago
This seems like the best option to me.
jkbyc 12y ago
It's even already implemented as the Hacker News UX extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-ux/chngbdmhgakoomomnnhfapkpbalpmhid https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-ux/chn... I like it a lot, it would be great to have it that way by default.

schrodinger 12y ago

I really like this idea. Just occasionally throw in some random "new" pages to users and see what gets read / upvoted. I'm sure that most users don't check the "new" page.

tlrobinson 12y ago

I like the idea of simply appending a subset of the /new stories to the end of the front page. Make it clear they're brand new (should also be obvious from the low vote count).

huhtenberg 12y ago

Just splice a random /newest entry into a front page on every load. This gets extra eyes on them and helps float good stories up. Optionally mark them green, just like HN currently marks noob users.

tptacek 12y ago
If you have ideas on how to improve the front page, a great thing to do is to send them to hn@ycombinator.com. Dan and Nick are super responsive, and you might be able to have a more productive conversation in email than on a thread.
- huhtenberg 12y ago
  Posting it here helps accumulating other people upvotes, which, presumably, Dan and Nick can see on their end. It also opens subject to a wider discussion, which is hardly a bad thing. Meta threads are pretty damn useful if you ask me.
  - tptacek 12y ago
    I agree, and I actually like the meta-threads, but I've had much more success talking to Dan privately than I have in trying to motivate changes with public comments. I think if you're really serious about a suggestion, mailing Dan is the right way to go. If there's one consistent thing I've read from Dan in his tenure of publicly moderating the site, it's "please mail hn@ycombinator.com about this stuff". I'm just heading him off here. :)
    - deleted 12y ago
      [deleted]
toomuchtodo 12y ago
> Optionally mark them green, just like HN currently marks noob users. Love this suggestion. +1
Timsalabim 12y ago

chrisdevereux 12y ago

I like the idea of adding a sample of new stories to the front. It would guarantee a number of extremely low quality submissions on the front though, which might affect the overall percieved quality of HN. It also might be a problem if simply submitting to HN guarantees a decent number of pageviews.

DanBC 12y ago
Perhaps new, but filtered to exclude certain sites that get a lot of attention here anyway.

sama 12y ago

good ideas here and in the responses. we will consider.

sharemywin 12y ago
any thoughts on actually creating a discussion board/forum. because there are a fair many of those types of posts. (Show HN, questions etc.)But,there are a lot of news/off site type posts and they don't seem to go together.
willvarfar 12y ago
somewhat related, you could use collaborative filtering. I've blogged about my thoughts and experiments with it in the past: http://williamedwardscoder.tumblr.com/post/15581427232/self-organizing-reddit http://williamedwardscoder.tumblr.com/post/15581427232/self-... You can show some random unrated stories at the very top of the list, and then stories sorted by collaborative filtering. In my prototyping it worked super-well.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago
  Interesting concept. One think that popped to my mind immediately is that you need to avoid accidentally creating filter bubbles, i.e. locking everyone in their own personalized stream that shows only what they like and already agree with. It's dangerous for the mind. Another thing is that a lot of value people like me derive from hanging out here are the random things you get to discover here - things that one wouldn't ever think about before and thus never upvote something similar. So it would be good to leave some place to splice in some random submissions that are not related to one's personal preferences.
  - willvarfar 12y ago
    Re filter bubbling, the scheme as envisaged actually broadens it. It shows some random unrated stories at the very top of the list so everyone is constantly exposed to things not in their filter bubble deliberately.
- 12y ago