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Ask HN: Do posts by authors with more karma rank higher?

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Re: Ask HN: Do posts by authors with more karma rank higher?

#11

Post by dheera »

No, but the only way to get a post to the front page of HN these days is to discreetly ask a bunch of your friends to upvote it. And people with high karma are probably people who tend to have other friends who are also HN readers and who they can ask for upvotes.

As much as this probably isn't the fair system we all want, it's what the system's optimization encourages today.

Try posting something SUPER interesting, staying quiet and not telling anyone. It's almost guaranteed not to make it to the front page.

Although I don't encourage this, with the current algorithm, you could probably even prevent others' from getting their work on the front page by posting it ahead of time. When they try to post it they'll get a duplicate link but it's already stale and past its upvote-to-front-page life, which is probably about 30-60 minutes.

Re: Ask HN: Do posts by authors with more karma rank higher?

#12

Post by mindcrime »

I have moderately high karma, and I haven't noticed any evidence that my posts are treated favorably as a result. I'm less sure on comments. At times I have suspected that comments from high karma users may get bubbled up, but I certainly couldn't swear to it.

Re: Ask HN: Do posts by authors with more karma rank higher?

#13

Post by edoceo »

dheera wrote: post #11

No, but the only way to get a post to the front page of HN these days is to discreetly ask a bunch of your friends to upvote it. And people with high karma are probably people who tend to have other friends who are also HN readers and who they can ask for upvotes. As much as this probably isn't the fair system we all want, it's what the system's optimization encourages today. Try posting something SUPER interesting,…

Isn't "super interesting" relative/subjective? And if it doesn't make FP its therefore not super interesting? Heck, I'm low karma, posted mildly interesting things that have been FP. Maybe FP is the measurement of interesting?

Re: Ask HN: Do posts by authors with more karma rank higher?

#14

Post by dheera »

edoceo wrote: post #13
dheera wrote: post #11

No, but the only way to get a post to the front page of HN these days is to discreetly ask a bunch of your friends to upvote it. And people with high karma are probably people who tend to have other friends who are also HN readers and who they can ask for upvotes. As much as this probably isn't the fair system we all want, it's what the system's optimization encourages today. Try posting something SUPER interesting,…

Isn't "super interesting" relative/subjective? And if it doesn't make FP its therefore not super interesting? Heck, I'm low karma, posted mildly interesting things that have been FP. Maybe FP is the measurement of interesting?

Relative to the general audience.

Ideally, whether or not something makes it to the front page should depend on whether the readers of HN think it's interesting.

However, the current (sub-optimal IMO) situation is that as long as it meets some pretty low bar for "interesting", it depends MUCH more on the submitter's friend network than the readers.

Re: Ask HN: Do posts by authors with more karma rank higher?

#15

Post by manmal »

mindcrime wrote: post #12

I have moderately high karma, and I haven't noticed any evidence that my posts are treated favorably as a result. I'm less sure on comments. At times I have suspected that comments from high karma users may get bubbled up, but I certainly couldn't swear to it.

I‘m also quite certain that, with more karma, comments stay at the top longer. Cannot say much about submissions.

Re: Ask HN: Do posts by authors with more karma rank higher?

#17

Post by nick-garfield »

dheera wrote: post #11

No, but the only way to get a post to the front page of HN these days is to discreetly ask a bunch of your friends to upvote it. And people with high karma are probably people who tend to have other friends who are also HN readers and who they can ask for upvotes. As much as this probably isn't the fair system we all want, it's what the system's optimization encourages today. Try posting something SUPER interesting,…

I'm sure you're right that people occasionally leverage a friend network to upvote content to the front-page. I get the sense this happens a lot on Product Hunt.

But I know for a fact this isn't the _only_ way to reach the front-page of HN because I didn't ask anyone to upvote this post. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Re: Ask HN: Do posts by authors with more karma rank higher?

#19

Post by neogodless »

dheera wrote: post #11

No, but the only way to get a post to the front page of HN these days is to discreetly ask a bunch of your friends to upvote it. And people with high karma are probably people who tend to have other friends who are also HN readers and who they can ask for upvotes. As much as this probably isn't the fair system we all want, it's what the system's optimization encourages today. Try posting something SUPER interesting,…

I don't know where my karma ranks, but I've had a few front page submissions - nothing original. Just interesting reviews of brand new tech, that sort of thing. I simply posted the article first and lots of people were interested in it.

To me, it seems obvious that the value of the content and timing are the two biggest levers. I've gone to post things that are new and interesting, but someone else posted it, my submission counted as an upvote, and the submission ended up on the front page.

I have never asked anyone to upvote anything.

Re: Ask HN: Do posts by authors with more karma rank higher?

#20

Post by paulgb »

nick-garfield wrote: post #17
dheera wrote: post #11

No, but the only way to get a post to the front page of HN these days is to discreetly ask a bunch of your friends to upvote it. And people with high karma are probably people who tend to have other friends who are also HN readers and who they can ask for upvotes. As much as this probably isn't the fair system we all want, it's what the system's optimization encourages today. Try posting something SUPER interesting,…

I'm sure you're right that people occasionally leverage a friend network to upvote content to the front-page. I get the sense this happens a lot on Product Hunt. But I know for a fact this isn't the _only_ way to reach the front-page of HN because I didn't ask anyone to upvote this post. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For what it's worth, Ask and Show posts are less likely to fall into the abyss than regular posts because they both have their own front pages where the threshold is lower than the main FP. So they have a longer exposure time to gain the upvotes to make it to the FP.
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