4 ms·

Ask HN: Did the HN ranking algo give more weight to 'Show HN' submissions?

• Rygu 12y ago
  From an engineer's point of view, it was probably either change the algorithm or increase exposure. I don't think they've done both, so I would say it's just the extra exposure.
• JacobAldridge 12y ago
  No - just the announcement triggering a lot of amazing people to share and support. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7985104 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7985104
  • kogir 12y ago
    This is correct. If you look at the vote counts you'll see they're there because people voted for them.
• byoung2 12y ago
  I think more people created show hn posts to capitalize on the novelty of showing up on the new list.
  • jclos 12y ago
    And also the increased visibility on the new list may have made them gather more upvotes?
• deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
• lucb1e 12y ago
  I don't think so, but in my opinion it would be better if they're weighed down (instead of up). That way anyone interested can go to /show and the good stuff still makes it to the front page. Or like muppetman suggested yesterday (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7986578 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7986578), make it a profile option whether to show them on the front page. Or perhaps add a weight field as a profile option? That should make everyone happy I think.
  • PeterGriffin 12y ago
    Not that all entries of Show HN are shining, but I'd rather read about people's creations, rather than "Can we guess which teenagers will binge drink" and some of the other popular garbage that shows up on HN. We need more news that connects us and lets us know how we can help each other via our creations.
    • lucb1e 12y ago
      Isn't that what /show is for? I personally just don't have the time to play with and use all the products that people around here make, I'm on Hacker News for the general (hacker) news; not hacker productions. I agree that the drinking teenagers link isn't too interesting and I haven't read it (but I saw it too), but it still is closer to the kind of news I'm looking for than all the Show HN's. I see what you mean and there sure is an audience for connecting hackers/makers with each other, but I think /show does that better than the front page. Of course if I'm wrong, the show stories will be upvoted enough and I'll need to find another website for my news. Nothing wrong with that. I just think that the current amount of Show HN's is a bit too much and, since we have /show now, maybe we should weigh them down or make it an option field (even if the current volume is only due to the announcement).
      • PeterGriffin 12y ago
        For this to work, it has to have at least a specific community volume, and it won't have that volume if it's buried as a link in that obscure menu up there, while the homepage of HN is "regular" news. Power of defaults, and so on. A better deal would be a portal home page showing some news, some Show HN entries, and maybe other sections that can be added.
• jbranchaud 12y ago
  The combination of this being a new feature and the "Show HN" posts now having a dedicated page simply gave them a big boost in exposure. I doubt it has anything to do with the algorithms. I will, however, be interested to see how things settle once it is no longer a NEW feature.
  • personlurking 12y ago
    With dedicated pages, it's giving the appearance of "subreddits" in a way. What I'd really like to see in those terms: 1. News 2. Technical 3. Show HN 4. Ask HN (maybe)
    • nitrogen 12y ago
      There is already /ask, which shows stories that don't have a URL.
  • dang 12y ago
    This is exactly right. And we'll wait for things to settle before making any changes.
• kazinator 12y ago
  An increase in "Show HN" could be partially explained by the recent closure of Freshmeat (Freecode).