I can say from personal experience that it is much easier to get on the frontpage if you have a group of four or five people ready to upvote your content. It i

I can say from personal experience that it is much easier to get on the frontpage if you have a group of four or five people ready to upvote your content. It is possible to get a post to rise without that, but it often takes a handful of reposts. I believe the crux of this issue is not enough people frequent the new page (https://news.ycombinator.com/newest https://news.ycombinator.com/newest). If that page got enough traffic, the legitimate votes would outweigh all but the most systematic attempts to 'game' the system.