Comment by laujen | Hacker News Reader

Comment by laujen | Hacker News Reader

This isn't anti-Hacker News. I really love the site and read it every day and try to contribute as much as I can, but I find the dynamic of which posts get elevated very interesting. I assume HN favors long-time users who have posted a lot and as a relative newcomer here my stuff just languishes. I have so desperately wanted to do an experiment where two people, a long time user and a new user, post the same article and see which one bubbles to the top. In other words, I don't think we don't get the most interesting stuff on the front page; what we actually get is the stuff posted by the most highly rated users. Anyone have thoughts on this? (Again, not trying to be negative even if it sounds that way. It is just an observation.)

I dunno... I barely even notice the "who" element when I upvote something. I upvote purely based on how interesting the link is.

I do think there may be an element of "preferential attachment"[1] going on in regards to how upvotes get distributed, but I can't prove it.

[1]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferential_attachment

I don't think it is on purpose. I don't really pay attention, either. But the people you naturally find and the people who get read the most are the ones who have been around the longest and therefore get their posts on the front page. It's a virtuous cycle, I think.

Old timers will have a much better idea of what is popular and broadly interesting plus they will know the best times to submit the news.

Personally, as a new user to the site, a fair few of my submissions have done reasonably well .. so I don't think there is any preference going on.

[W]e don't get the most interesting stuff on the front page

If someone ever comes up with an algorithm that guarantees that all front page stories will be "interesting" to all HN users, a story about it will certainly make the front page.

Personally, I only pay attention to who posted it when I suspect they may be a spammer.

I think the key is to build a network of Twitter followers or other near-real-time friends, and get them to upvote your submission. Being too obvious about it will get you flagged by news.arc and HN users, though.

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