5 ms·

This post was ranked 4th a few minutes ago and suddenly it dropped to 29th. It currently has 10 points and was created 25 minutes ago, and is behind posts with

by tarruda 12y ago

This post was ranked 4th a few minutes ago and suddenly it dropped to 29th. It currently has 10 points and was created 25 minutes ago, and is behind posts with 5 points created 35 minutes ago, anyone has an idea why this happens?

shocks 12y ago
Penalties can be applied for various keywords or voting patterns. Perhaps the voting ring detector was tripped?
- tarruda 12y ago
  Seems to be the cause, just found this: http://www.righto.com/2013/11/how-hacker-news-ranking-really-works.html http://www.righto.com/2013/11/how-hacker-news-ranking-really...
- tarruda 12y ago
  The penalty applied to this post seems really unjust. 138 points in two hours ranked 20th, in contrast with the 2nd place which has 130 points and also was posted two hours ago.
  - shocks 12y ago
    Yes I agree. I'd like to know what the penalty here is. Keyword based? I've read (somewhere) that "vim" gets a penalty, perhaps "neovim" does now too.
    - blumkvist 12y ago
      Why does vim get a penalty?
      - dang 12y ago
        Of course vim doesn't get a penalty. How do people come up with these things?! Edit: removed joke about being an Emacs user. Must learn not to do that.
  - davis 12y ago
    Yup. And now its off the homepage even though it should still be in the top 10.
stefantalpalaru 12y ago
> anyone has an idea why this happens? We're watched over by machines of loving grace.
dang 12y ago
It set off the voting ring detector.
- tarruda 12y ago
  How does HN distinguishes popular posts from voting rings? Or will it always penalize a post with too many votes in a short time span?
  - tptacek 12y ago
    Not the expert, but an old-timer: It's a cat-and-mouse game between HN and the various promotional rings, so they're always going to be cagey about how it works. Generally: post content, and then trust the site to find it. Re-post later if the site misses it. Don't do other things --- like asking your friends to upvote, or circulating HN links on other sites --- to promote an HN link. Generally a good rule of thumb is that things you do to promote your STORY are probably fine, but things you do to promote AN HN LINK are virtually never fine.
    - tarruda 12y ago
      We only promote the newsletter link, not the HN discussion. Though I have been seeing some tweets(@ExplodingAds, @offeryour and others) whenever a Neovim story is posted, could these(which often contain HN discussion links) be triggering the ring detector?
      - tedunangst 12y ago
        The twitter spambots tweet about every story. And comment. And whatever.
wodenokoto 12y ago
I've found that HN tends to present things with some variations. I don't really consider the front page as a ranking as much as current suggestions. Sometimes the top post has no comments, sometimes the top is dominated by full discussions.

by tarruda 12y ago

shocks 12y ago

Penalties can be applied for various keywords or voting patterns. Perhaps the voting ring detector was tripped?

tarruda 12y ago
Seems to be the cause, just found this: http://www.righto.com/2013/11/how-hacker-news-ranking-really-works.html http://www.righto.com/2013/11/how-hacker-news-ranking-really...
tarruda 12y ago
The penalty applied to this post seems really unjust. 138 points in two hours ranked 20th, in contrast with the 2nd place which has 130 points and also was posted two hours ago.
- shocks 12y ago
  Yes I agree. I'd like to know what the penalty here is. Keyword based? I've read (somewhere) that "vim" gets a penalty, perhaps "neovim" does now too.
  - blumkvist 12y ago
    Why does vim get a penalty?
    - dang 12y ago
      Of course vim doesn't get a penalty. How do people come up with these things?! Edit: removed joke about being an Emacs user. Must learn not to do that.
- davis 12y ago
  Yup. And now its off the homepage even though it should still be in the top 10.

stefantalpalaru 12y ago

> anyone has an idea why this happens? We're watched over by machines of loving grace.

dang 12y ago

It set off the voting ring detector.

tarruda 12y ago
How does HN distinguishes popular posts from voting rings? Or will it always penalize a post with too many votes in a short time span?
- tptacek 12y ago
  Not the expert, but an old-timer: It's a cat-and-mouse game between HN and the various promotional rings, so they're always going to be cagey about how it works. Generally: post content, and then trust the site to find it. Re-post later if the site misses it. Don't do other things --- like asking your friends to upvote, or circulating HN links on other sites --- to promote an HN link. Generally a good rule of thumb is that things you do to promote your STORY are probably fine, but things you do to promote AN HN LINK are virtually never fine.
  - tarruda 12y ago
    We only promote the newsletter link, not the HN discussion. Though I have been seeing some tweets(@ExplodingAds, @offeryour and others) whenever a Neovim story is posted, could these(which often contain HN discussion links) be triggering the ring detector?
    - tedunangst 12y ago
      The twitter spambots tweet about every story. And comment. And whatever.

wodenokoto 12y ago

I've found that HN tends to present things with some variations. I don't really consider the front page as a ranking as much as current suggestions. Sometimes the top post has no comments, sometimes the top is dominated by full discussions.