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Well, I believe it's more than that, but I've never seen it so I'm not sure. I've heard rumours that all YC alum have separate features that encourage friendly

by cryptoz 12y ago

Well, I believe it's more than that, but I've never seen it so I'm not sure. I've heard rumours that all YC alum have separate features that encourage friendly voting between them, or something similar. > Note that submissions from certain people/companies add extra relevant context Yes, I think I agree. I'm okay with the way things are, ish. It would be better with more transparency, though, but HN's "goal" seems to be quality, and they certainly think that quality is increased with increased visibility to YC-related submissions. My only problem would be HN posing as "fair", which I don't think they do.

minimaxir 12y ago
As mentioned below, YC founders have orange usernames. But that doesn't give them immunity from flagging when they submit bad articles. :)
- harvestmoon 12y ago
  This may be the case, but it surprises me. In the 3-4 years I've used HN, I haven't noticed it. If you are a very well known user like patio, it's possible that you'll get a good amount of upvotes more easily. For most users, however, it seems to me to be a matter of good title, good content and luck as to whether or not your submission does well.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - minimaxir 12y ago
    Interesting that you give patio as an example, since his last submission was about a year ago, with most of his submissions being 4 years old: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=patio11 https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=patio11 Patio's comments, in my experience, are an outlier in quality/length, so it's hard to use that as a trend.
    - harvestmoon 12y ago
      Good catch (used Patio11 because off the top of my head can't think of other popular users by their handle). Anyway, to me it seems that, with the rare exception, HN is pretty good in each submission being judged on its own.
- wglb 12y ago
  The orange user names are shown only to other YC alums, not others.

by cryptoz 12y ago

minimaxir 12y ago

As mentioned below, YC founders have orange usernames. But that doesn't give them immunity from flagging when they submit bad articles. :)

harvestmoon 12y ago
This may be the case, but it surprises me. In the 3-4 years I've used HN, I haven't noticed it. If you are a very well known user like patio, it's possible that you'll get a good amount of upvotes more easily. For most users, however, it seems to me to be a matter of good title, good content and luck as to whether or not your submission does well.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- minimaxir 12y ago
  Interesting that you give patio as an example, since his last submission was about a year ago, with most of his submissions being 4 years old: https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=patio11 https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=patio11 Patio's comments, in my experience, are an outlier in quality/length, so it's hard to use that as a trend.
  - harvestmoon 12y ago
    Good catch (used Patio11 because off the top of my head can't think of other popular users by their handle). Anyway, to me it seems that, with the rare exception, HN is pretty good in each submission being judged on its own.
wglb 12y ago
The orange user names are shown only to other YC alums, not others.