The forum is a harsh mistress
Ask HN: Does anyone understand how Hacker News works?
231–240 of 248 posts
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone understand how Hacker News works?
#232New Job discipline born: "Hacker News Visibility Consultant Services", like there are companys optimizing your position in the app stores :-D
[Laughs nervously] I bet that this isn’t an exaggeration. Being highly-ranked on HN can probably give a startup a huge advantage, in the hype department. I guarantee that LLMs are currently being feverishly trained on HN front pages, for the last few years, and we’re gonna be seeing “link farm” sites, specifically designed to rank high on HN. I enjoy it here. I don’t hang out on any other social media, so this place…
>I’ve spent my entire life, hanging around people that intimidate and inspire me, so this place feels like home
Best sentence of the day
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone understand how Hacker News works?
#233I made a Show HN once, for my project. It provided a lot of eyes, users, and useful comments. But as it often happens, the first time I posted it it got lost into the cacophony and no one cared. I reached out to the mods, asked if I could qualify for the second chance pool [1] and my project had, finally, a chance in the spotlight. Hacker News is too large. There's too many people and honestly not many hackers. The v…
>Only dang knows how this place works
Best comment of this whole thread
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone understand how Hacker News works?
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Hacker news is there to promote ycombinator companies I should probably clarify this a bit. It's true that HN sponsors Launch HNs (and Show HNs) by YC startups. This is in the FAQ: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html . However, YC would not be funding HN if that were the only reason for it. It's a secondary factor. Far more important than promoting existing startups is attracting founders who might start new…
I interpreted their comment more along the lines of “Don’t critique ycombinator companies or go against their interests, otherwise you’re fine” YC companies and their founders have special privileges on here and there is an opaque moderation system. There is no data you could provide beyond full transparency into your entire organization(obviously not happening) that would convince anyone that there isn’t influence t…
> There is no data you could provide beyond full transparency into your entire organization(obviously not happening) that would convince anyone that there isn’t influence that they have over communication here
Since you're in a subthread of my comment: I've been here for many years and have not seen any evidence that would convince me that you are right.
And I trust both Dan and Tom to speak truthfully on this matter, they are truthful in their interaction with the community and I see no reason why this would be any different. And if it were different and if you did find proof that it is different then I don't know of HN would be for me anymore.
It is always important to realize that when you write words like 'anyone' that you are speaking for yourself.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone understand how Hacker News works?
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
I interpreted their comment more along the lines of “Don’t critique ycombinator companies or go against their interests, otherwise you’re fine” YC companies and their founders have special privileges on here and there is an opaque moderation system. There is no data you could provide beyond full transparency into your entire organization(obviously not happening) that would convince anyone that there isn’t influence t…
> There is no data you could provide beyond full transparency into your entire organization(obviously not happening) that would convince anyone that there isn’t influence that they have over communication here Since you're in a subthread of my comment: I've been here for many years and have not seen any evidence that would convince me that you are right. And I trust both Dan and Tom to speak truthfully on this matter…
You are correct. I will walk back the term “anyone” and amend it to “anyone who doesn’t personally trust the employees/mods of the organization and doesn’t assume that an organization involved in investments and VC firms will act with the same level of self interest as everyone else in that industry”
I am obviously very skeptical of any group like this, but not to the point where I would claim a stance like yours is definitionally incorrect. I’m just personally never going to have trust without the transparency given past history
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone understand how Hacker News works?
#236(I'm a mod here) It's true that this place can be cryptic, and that has downsides—specifically, it can be confusing to newcomers, even to some newcomers who would make ideal HN users. That sucks. But there's a key that unlocks most of the puzzles. That is to understand that we're optimizing for exactly one thing: curiosity. (Specifically, intellectual curiosity, since there are other kinds of curiosity too.) Here are…
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Re: Ask HN: Does anyone understand how Hacker News works?
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
> There is no data you could provide beyond full transparency into your entire organization(obviously not happening) that would convince anyone that there isn’t influence that they have over communication here Since you're in a subthread of my comment: I've been here for many years and have not seen any evidence that would convince me that you are right. And I trust both Dan and Tom to speak truthfully on this matter…
You are correct. I will walk back the term “anyone” and amend it to “anyone who doesn’t personally trust the employees/mods of the organization and doesn’t assume that an organization involved in investments and VC firms will act with the same level of self interest as everyone else in that industry” I am obviously very skeptical of any group like this, but not to the point where I would claim a stance like yours is…
I have some evidence that might sway you: there have been many threads on here that are critical of YC backed companies, sometimes pretty pointy ones.
For those threads flagging is turned off not on. So YC companies actually have it harder on HN than non-YC companies very specifically to avoid the accusation of bias.
I've also seen people associated with YC backed companies here downvoted into the toilet for spouting unpopular opinions. The only thing that possibly could happen (and that would be fairly hard to detect) is brigading on a company level, but I would accuse the likes of Google and Apple of that long before I would do so with the YC mods. Think about the opportunity cost of moderating this site. If you take that into account and then combine what you know of Dan and Tom with them selling out their integrity for a pittance if it would come to light that they did so it would wreck their reputation, which is pretty much the only compensation they really get here.
So I'm not buying it and I'm more skeptical of YC than most on here.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone understand how Hacker News works?
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't know for sure. For me, it's just the "eyeball method" of comparing HN and different subreddits on Reddit. As to how I (or anyone) could show this, here are a few example questions: 1. How many examples of stealthy but otherwise blatant promotion do you see in the comments? Not every astroturfing campaign will be successful or original, so you'd be able to notice some patterns. Plus, HN is already commercially…
I'd be shocked if this site was never manipulated by its owners to influence opinion in their benefit.
I'd be shocked if it were because the owners now this is a fragile thing and one word from Dan or Tom that this is or was the case and half the participants here would walk. The owners are more than likely well aware of that risk and are not going to destroy the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Check out the treatment PG (and Garry Tan) got in the thread about defending YC's effective investment into Installmonetizer for a good example of news.ycombinator.com's response to such crap.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone understand how Hacker News works?
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are correct. I will walk back the term “anyone” and amend it to “anyone who doesn’t personally trust the employees/mods of the organization and doesn’t assume that an organization involved in investments and VC firms will act with the same level of self interest as everyone else in that industry” I am obviously very skeptical of any group like this, but not to the point where I would claim a stance like yours is…
I have some evidence that might sway you: there have been many threads on here that are critical of YC backed companies, sometimes pretty pointy ones. For those threads flagging is turned off not on. So YC companies actually have it harder on HN than non-YC companies very specifically to avoid the accusation of bias. I've also seen people associated with YC backed companies here downvoted into the toilet for spouting…
There is zero evidence that would sway me other than full transparency into all company records, which I recognize as an implausible ask.
I do not trust companies, or any organization involved in their creation and investment like this forum, to speak honestly and openly.
They have an incentive not to and their peers have proven time and time again that this incentive is too enticing to avoid.
I have seen and taken part in threads on here that were negative for ycombinator and/or their business partners be removed at almost machine level speed.
Maybe it’s the company, maybe it’s the community opinion, maybe it’s another option that I didn’t anticipate.
Regardless I assume it’s the company because they have not proven otherwise and companies in the American business setting are guilty until proven innocent to me.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone understand how Hacker News works?
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have some evidence that might sway you: there have been many threads on here that are critical of YC backed companies, sometimes pretty pointy ones. For those threads flagging is turned off not on. So YC companies actually have it harder on HN than non-YC companies very specifically to avoid the accusation of bias. I've also seen people associated with YC backed companies here downvoted into the toilet for spouting…
There is zero evidence that would sway me other than full transparency into all company records, which I recognize as an implausible ask. I do not trust companies, or any organization involved in their creation and investment like this forum, to speak honestly and openly. They have an incentive not to and their peers have proven time and time again that this incentive is too enticing to avoid. I have seen and taken p…
Don't underestimate the power of brigading. If a couple of YC founders on YC's internal forum (much like HN) decide to get together there isn't much the moderators of HN can do about it other than to act retro-actively.
You'll see the same happen whenever someone is critical of some deity or brand (say, Steve Jobs or Apple). This is a generic problem, and it is a hard one to solve.
I've always been a fan of analyzing all of the flags retro-actively to see if they were just or not and to have a per-subject matrix that would weigh flags from particular users. So anybody that is on the gravy train at apple would find their apple flagging permissions removed, and all YC combinator founders would have their ability to flag YC related threads removed. But that is a lot of work to implement and keep accurate.