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Tell HN: An Observation

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Re: Tell HN: An Observation

#11

Post by jacquesm »

Around this time of day the submissions on the new page go by so fast that only the most juicy stuff makes it to the front page. 4 votes before you scroll off the new page or your article might as well be dead, it's very rare (but it does happen) to see anything get traction afterwards.

And of course you didn't write about a scandal in progress or something like that.

If you write just for the interaction with HN I can imagine that it is hard if your stuff goes by unnoticed, but of course there is no automatic relationship between what you did and how it was received in the past coupled with everything you write in the future.

Maybe simply not enough people thought it was homepage worthy and it is a signal to do better? That's how I interpret it when my stuff slides by without even a single upvote.

(I note that even devmonk who commented did not upvote your submission).

Don't take it so personal, as HN grows this is bound to happen more and more often. I've had it happen to me with an article that was requested by people here, that felt pretty weird too, but there really are no guarantees.

Spray and pray :)

Re: Tell HN: An Observation

#12

Post by jacquesm »

diego wrote: post #8
michael_dorfman wrote: post #5

One of the factors that I've noticed lately is that due to the quantity of new submissions, it takes only 30 minutes or so for an article to drop off the first "new" page. I try to check the "new" page periodically, but I must admit, I don't scroll beyond the first page-- so, the article referenced above I missed entirely, and it seems like I wasn't the only one. Which means that the problem may not be that "nobody i…

It's obvious: feature a random article from the new page on the front page like Reddit does (a different one each time you load the page), so it gets some exposure.

But that would have the unintended side-effect of making the site much more attractive to spammers because they'd be almost guaranteed some homepage exposure.

Re: Tell HN: An Observation

#13

Post by robg »

edanm wrote: post #10

I read HN quite a lot, and I have to say, I rarely get around to reading the New page. Honestly, it takes me a lot of time to just go through most of the stuff that hits the front page (including comments), so I usually don't have the time to check out more articles whose quality hasn't even been vetted. I think HN really should implement a way around this. The most obvious is to randomly show new articles on the fro…

I know I barely have time to read the stuff on the front page, let alone the new page. As it is, my wide reading berth takes an hour or two of my time a day and I try to submit interesting stuff I find. But much beyond that and I'm not getting stuff done.

A new front page sidebar could work, but it would clutter things up. I'm not sure of a design that combines new with popular. Are there any precedents out there?

Re: Tell HN: An Observation

#15

Post by DanielBMarkham »

jacquesm wrote: post #11

Around this time of day the submissions on the new page go by so fast that only the most juicy stuff makes it to the front page. 4 votes before you scroll off the new page or your article might as well be dead, it's very rare (but it does happen) to see anything get traction afterwards. And of course you didn't write about a scandal in progress or something like that. If you write just for the interaction with HN I c…

Thanks Jacques. As usual, we agree. Sometimes I wonder why I reply to your comments at all, since we agree so much. :)

I think what bugged me was the lack of drive-by readers.

HN is pretty much the only site I submit to. I have no aspirations of blogging as a business. I blog because I want to, and I'd blog if nobody came by. So heck with the score or the front-page status. And no, it doesn't bug me that a large percentage of what I write is not home-page material. That's okay too. Hey, I got used to being a mediocre writer many years ago. It's all spray and pray now.

The problem is that as a submitter you'd at least like to get a decent second set of eyeballs on your work. The value the site provides to me as a submitter isn't making the front page -- it's getting the feedback from readers. No initial readers, no feedback (good or bad)

Sure, there is a bit of sour grapes here. I guess you'd think if you spent a long time writing something that in return you'd at least receive a reasonable review. But if the average number of initial reviewers is decreasing for everybody, it can't help but mean a decrease in the quality of material overall. So it would seem that my problem as a submitter, even a submitter of poor quality material, affects the quality of material on the site for all users.

Re: Tell HN: An Observation

#17

Post by jacquesm »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #15
jacquesm wrote: post #11

Around this time of day the submissions on the new page go by so fast that only the most juicy stuff makes it to the front page. 4 votes before you scroll off the new page or your article might as well be dead, it's very rare (but it does happen) to see anything get traction afterwards. And of course you didn't write about a scandal in progress or something like that. If you write just for the interaction with HN I c…

Thanks Jacques. As usual, we agree. Sometimes I wonder why I reply to your comments at all, since we agree so much. :) I think what bugged me was the lack of drive-by readers. HN is pretty much the only site I submit to. I have no aspirations of blogging as a business. I blog because I want to, and I'd blog if nobody came by. So heck with the score or the front-page status. And no, it doesn't bug me that a large perc…

As for the original topic of your submission, minimalistic interfaces, I'm all for it.

I predict the death of the submit button in the next 2 years.

Re: Tell HN: An Observation

#18

Post by tjr »

jacquesm wrote: post #12
diego wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's obvious: feature a random article from the new page on the front page like Reddit does (a different one each time you load the page), so it gets some exposure.

But that would have the unintended side-effect of making the site much more attractive to spammers because they'd be almost guaranteed some homepage exposure.

Feature a random article selected from new articles submitted by users with at least 10 points?

Re: Tell HN: An Observation

#20

Post by DanielBMarkham »

jacquesm wrote: post #17
DanielBMarkham wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks Jacques. As usual, we agree. Sometimes I wonder why I reply to your comments at all, since we agree so much. :) I think what bugged me was the lack of drive-by readers. HN is pretty much the only site I submit to. I have no aspirations of blogging as a business. I blog because I want to, and I'd blog if nobody came by. So heck with the score or the front-page status. And no, it doesn't bug me that a large perc…

As for the original topic of your submission, minimalistic interfaces, I'm all for it. I predict the death of the submit button in the next 2 years.

It occurred to me over the last week or two that most all of the startup and pet project work I've been doing over the past decade has all boiled down to presenting complex and thought-provoking data to the user in the most simple way possible. Every little piece of user interface, web application, or technology that sits between the brain and a simple version of the decisions it needs to make each day is a cognitive weight we carry around.

There was another great article on the front page of HN today about cognitive slaves. It's a topic that keeps coming up again and again for me and the community, and as one other commenter asks on this thread, at some point it's not enough to simply complain, what would you do to fix it? I'm happy to actually be trying something. Wish me luck!

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