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Hacker News Data Analysis

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21–30 of 79 posts

Re: Hacker News Data Analysis

#21

Post by henrik_w »

rickyconnolly wrote: post #19

I've noticed that some submissions drop off the news feed like a rock, while other submissions of the same story posted just a few hours later can gather considerable discussion, with submission time being the only apparent variable. This leads me to speculate that there may be an optimal submission time or times throughout the day. I'd like to see analytics that look at the variation in the average number of comment…

There is a tool that attempts to predict when it is a good time to submit something to HN, http://hnpickup.appspot.com/

It's been discussed several times on HN, for example here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4058492 and (original submission I think): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3251877

Re: Hacker News Data Analysis

#22

Post by hollerith »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #6

I suspect the NYT/WSJ gap is more a result of WSJ's much more restrictive paywall.

Yeah. I don't understand how the OP came to believe that the average quality of WSJ articles is drastically lower than that of NYT articles unless he never reads the WSJ or the NYT.

Re: Hacker News Data Analysis

#23

Post by tokenadult »

"Interestingly, if you look at the number of upvotes cast each day, the trend is similar. For the past two years, the same number of stories have been competing for about the same number of votes each day." This statement, backed up by the analysis in the submitted blog post, is interesting. I visit the new page

http://news.ycombinator.com/newest

as many times per day as I visit the front page, looking for good new submissions to upvote. The limit on the number of users who cast upvotes on new stories appears now to set a limit on the number of new stories that have been submitted in the last two years. As the blog author points out, if HN largely stays on topic, there are only so many new stories each day that fit HN's topic.

Re: Hacker News Data Analysis

#25

Post by Alex3917 »

"If anyone out there suspected that the 'old guard' had given up on HN, this chart proves them wrong."

Of the people here since the first year, probably only 25% still participate regularly. Occasionally I'll stumble across some discussion from the early years in Google, and it's crazy how different the site was back then. There are still good comments now, but back then there were entire conversations that were good. I don't even bother to write the kind of comments that I used to, because they wouldn't work at all on the site as it is today.

Re: Hacker News Data Analysis

#26

Post by rickdale »

I think what you are doing is challenging in the sense that you have made your goal to write a post that will go viral on HN. Remember, every story here, pretty much, is content from somewhere else. You are right that you aren't hitting your audience, but your audience isn't HN, its those reading your blog. If someone in your audience is also on HN then maybe they will find it relevant to post.

Writing to be a big story on HN is like betting a number in roulette. You had beginners luck at first, now its time to find a new game...

Re: Hacker News Data Analysis

#27

Post by fecak »

I do think that the day/time an article was posted and also who posted are fairly large contributors to being on the front page. I've written a few articles that have made the front page this year.

In at least two instances, I posted the article myself with no upvotes. Then another HN user reposted my articles a few days later (my blog is republished by a couple tech sites), and the same exact content makes the front page. Same article content, same title, just posted by someone else and linking to the mirrored site.

Good post Robert. If you're looking for help growing the RJM team, look me up.

Re: Hacker News Data Analysis

#29

Post by sageikosa »

udp wrote: post #10
jgrahamc wrote: post #8

If you look at my submission history of my blog then I think it's clear that HN likes things that are original and/or well thought out. My weaker blog posts go nowhere, but ones that are detailed make it. So, if there's a formula for appearing on HN, it's write something original and/or deep.

And then hope some people see it before it gets pushed from the "new" page, after which it doesn't matter how original or deep it is.

Which can happen very quickly. Sometimes I am not certain whether a posting just isn't interesting, or the wind is so strong the voice gets lost in the roar.

Re: Hacker News Data Analysis

#30

Post by DanBC »

Alex3917 wrote: post #25

"If anyone out there suspected that the 'old guard' had given up on HN, this chart proves them wrong." Of the people here since the first year, probably only 25% still participate regularly. Occasionally I'll stumble across some discussion from the early years in Google, and it's crazy how different the site was back then. There are still good comments now, but back then there were entire conversations that were good…

> I don't even bother to write the kind of comments that I used to

Please do. Good content is always welcome.

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