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How we hack Hacker News and consistently hit the front page

indiehackers.com

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Re: How we hack Hacker News and consistently hit the front page

#21

Post by johnny22 »

ouid wrote: post #19
nkurz wrote: post #3

Vouched for and upvoted because I think it's important for readers here to see how much effort goes into creating posts that game the system. I think it's better for these strategies to be known than hidden. It will be interesting to see how tactics like this one evolve as ChatGPT use becomes more widespread. There's a definite tension between the rule of not accusing other users of being shills and the reality that…

the rule against calling other people shills is the worst part of hackernews. Skepticism is important, and important to share. I have never been anything but grateful to read a comment pointing out that another comment was obviously a shill. Perhaps I have been embarrassed for not seeing the obvious truth, but always grateful.

I love that rule. I've gotten called a shill for microsoft many times when I've mentioned some of the cool aspects of their OS design, especially vs Linux.

The thing is, I use linux almost exclusively, but for occasional cross platform testing in a vm.

I really dislike being called a shill just for recognizing some neat ideas.

Re: How we hack Hacker News and consistently hit the front page

#22

Post by robust-cactus »

Ok so, different take - if this what people call "gaming the system" I'm all for it.

All this article says is that hackernews likes interesting, informative posts that actually tell a real story. And I for one am here for that all day. So yes, everyone take this strategy and make great content.

Re: How we hack Hacker News and consistently hit the front page

#23

Post by koboll »

detaro wrote: post #6

looking at the submission history for their domain... well, not that consistent and one of their accounts seems to be automatically killed by the spam filter. :D But I guess this confirms the blogspammy feeling I got from them sometimes.

If you read it, a big part of the secret sauce is "actually be thoughtful and informative". Like they drop everything to investigate something and surface useful information and insights as part of the process. Seems like the opposite of spam honestly.

Re: How we hack Hacker News and consistently hit the front page

#25

Post by Kiro »

ouid wrote: post #19
nkurz wrote: post #3

Vouched for and upvoted because I think it's important for readers here to see how much effort goes into creating posts that game the system. I think it's better for these strategies to be known than hidden. It will be interesting to see how tactics like this one evolve as ChatGPT use becomes more widespread. There's a definite tension between the rule of not accusing other users of being shills and the reality that…

the rule against calling other people shills is the worst part of hackernews. Skepticism is important, and important to share. I have never been anything but grateful to read a comment pointing out that another comment was obviously a shill. Perhaps I have been embarrassed for not seeing the obvious truth, but always grateful.

I would bet 99% of the "obvious shills" are actually not shills at all.

Re: How we hack Hacker News and consistently hit the front page

#26

Post by hackernewds »

koboll wrote: post #23
detaro wrote: post #6

looking at the submission history for their domain... well, not that consistent and one of their accounts seems to be automatically killed by the spam filter. :D But I guess this confirms the blogspammy feeling I got from them sometimes.

If you read it, a big part of the secret sauce is "actually be thoughtful and informative". Like they drop everything to investigate something and surface useful information and insights as part of the process. Seems like the opposite of spam honestly.

nice try Indiehacker ;)

next article: how we astroturf Hacker news. not too far-fetched given they're open to manipulating public sentiment on this platform

Re: How we hack Hacker News and consistently hit the front page

#27

Post by hakanderyal »

I don't see this post as "hacking" the HN, but in the same vein as the famous "Mission ... accomplished" comic from xkcd[0].

I wish more people produced content like the ones they've mentioned (about an interesting, current topic, with their own take).

[0]: https://xkcd.com/810/

Re: How we hack Hacker News and consistently hit the front page

#28

Post by hackernewds »

dmbche wrote: post #9
shever73 wrote: post #5

Sorry in advance for the grumpy response, but I hate articles like this and I detest the manipulation of an organic voting mechanism for self-promotion. I know this is the Internet we have to live with, but this kind of stuff just makes it a worse place to be.

Well then again, the articles they write and post (seem?) To have value, as they are written "with reaserach, without bs" and on newsworthy subjects... I see this less as "gaming HN" than "realising what the niche is" and fulfilling the niche. I guess I'm fine with someone posting first about a subject that will be there anyway? Maybe I'm not seeing something.

if they were informative and relevant the community would naturally upvote them, notwithstanding the manipulation efforts. the upvoting of some of the secondary comments on critical comments also seems pretty shady NGL
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