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Tell HN: The Submissions System is Broken

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Re: Tell HN: The Submissions System is Broken

#41

Post by lepton »

gregable wrote: post #29

Someone posted on HN a couple weeks back about the story ranking algorithm. PG mentioned that there were some hidden tweaks, but the basic idea was a function of number of votes and age of the article since submission (a "gravitational" term of sorts which drops stories over time). This type of algorithm explicitly penalizes stories with a pattern like that which you mention. If a post gets little interest initially…

Here's a fairly recent post, and in the top comment pg exposes those hidden tweaks: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1781013

Re: Tell HN: The Submissions System is Broken

#43

Post by chmike »

ugh wrote: post #20
csomar wrote: post #14

1. This will just lead to more spam. Submit, re-submit... 2. Won't work. They are recognized as new stories and they change quickly. Nobody wants to waste his time with "possibly" uninteresting stories. The solution is to prohibit people with less than a karma threshold, are new, didn't contribute a lot in the discussions from submitting stories. Also, limit other members to 1 story per day, this will give equal chan…

That rule change is not about stopping someone like tomerico from submitting stories (he has a lot of karma and submits only sporadically), it’s about reducing the volume of stories on the “New” page and giving them more exposure, right? I was already about to write a retort because at first I didn’t understand the mechanism by which this rule change would improve HN. Reducing the volume on the “New” page seems like…

I miss the info on how many eye balls the article got. If a submitted article gets only one upvote, is it because it didn't have readers or because people didn't find it worth the upvote ?

Re: Tell HN: The Submissions System is Broken

#44

Post by chmike »

Maybe there is not enough people checking the new submisson page. This is logic because it takes time and competes with work to do. Though there is an incentive to check the new submissions because chances for a comment in them to be upvoted are much higher because it gets more eye balls. This is not true when there are already 40 comments like in this thread.

Re: Tell HN: The Submissions System is Broken

#45

Post by user24 »

chmike wrote: post #43
ugh wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That rule change is not about stopping someone like tomerico from submitting stories (he has a lot of karma and submits only sporadically), it’s about reducing the volume of stories on the “New” page and giving them more exposure, right? I was already about to write a retort because at first I didn’t understand the mechanism by which this rule change would improve HN. Reducing the volume on the “New” page seems like…

I miss the info on how many eye balls the article got. If a submitted article gets only one upvote, is it because it didn't have readers or because people didn't find it worth the upvote ?

I recently submitted an article [1], it got 4 upvotes and translated to about 200 views.

[1] My Startup Ideas - http://www.puremango.co.uk/2010/10/ten-ideas/

Re: Tell HN: The Submissions System is Broken

#46

Post by Alex3917 »

happybuy wrote: post #26
vaksel wrote: post #16

i think the reddit system of featuring one new story on the front page would be good. Show a story to a 100 users...if it doesn't get an upvote...retire it, if it does show it to another 100...if a story doesn't get 5 upvotes...retire it.

Yes I agree. I've found that the reddit system has a lot better chance of bubbling up interesting articles irrespective of who submitted it. Unfortunately, from my experience, HN has become a bit of an echo chamber in the sense that certain posters have a lot better chance of having their articles noticed than the majority; irrespective of the relative value of the individual articles. I don't have data to support; b…

"an echo chamber in the sense that certain posters have a lot better chance of having their articles noticed"

It's also an echo chamber in terms of ideas. Why is it that when a woman does a reverse job application she gets 4 upvotes, but when a guy copies her two years later he's 'a genius' and gets 450+ upvotes?

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=648128

Re: Tell HN: The Submissions System is Broken

#48

Post by J3L2404 »

photon_off wrote: post #32
J3L2404 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or resubmit from deeper fathoms of the omnivorous echoplex. Although... HN never rewards reposters, I mean never. If it has already been submitted from a different site it won't get a single upvote, ever. Well maybe not ever, but extremely rarely, but that's because the community is not very fragmented.

I'd disagree with that. In terms of who is browsing the site now, versus 4 hours from now, it is very much fragmented. If you make the frontpage, it's likely you'll be viewed by a large enough portion of the community to be punished for reposting. If you don't reach the frontpage, I think it's OK to delete and try again.

I meant if you post the same article from a different source.

Re: Tell HN: The Submissions System is Broken

#49

Post by jeebusroxors »

Alex3917 wrote: post #46
happybuy wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes I agree. I've found that the reddit system has a lot better chance of bubbling up interesting articles irrespective of who submitted it. Unfortunately, from my experience, HN has become a bit of an echo chamber in the sense that certain posters have a lot better chance of having their articles noticed than the majority; irrespective of the relative value of the individual articles. I don't have data to support; b…

"an echo chamber in the sense that certain posters have a lot better chance of having their articles noticed" It's also an echo chamber in terms of ideas. Why is it that when a woman does a reverse job application she gets 4 upvotes, but when a guy copies her two years later he's 'a genius' and gets 450+ upvotes? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=648128

Just throwing this out there...

    Why is it that when a woman does a reverse job
    application she gets 4 upvotes, but when a guy 
    copies her two years later he's 'a genius' and 
    gets 450+ upvotes?
Because it was two years ago, and the link is to a landing page.

Your implication that sexism is the cause is pathetic.

Re: Tell HN: The Submissions System is Broken

#50

Post by Alex3917 »

jeebusroxors wrote: post #49
Alex3917 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"an echo chamber in the sense that certain posters have a lot better chance of having their articles noticed" It's also an echo chamber in terms of ideas. Why is it that when a woman does a reverse job application she gets 4 upvotes, but when a guy copies her two years later he's 'a genius' and gets 450+ upvotes? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=648128

Just throwing this out there... Why is it that when a woman does a reverse job application she gets 4 upvotes, but when a guy copies her two years later he's 'a genius' and gets 450+ upvotes? Because it was two years ago, and the link is to a landing page. Your implication that sexism is the cause is pathetic.

To clarify I don't think it's sexism per se, but rather the fact that she's non technical and not part of the tech community. I think if she had been a Ruby programmer and the design and content of the site had fit the norms of the HN community then it probably would have done just as well. (Adjusted for vote inflation.)
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