Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Reverse engineering my #1 Hacker News article

danielwirtz.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 45 posts

Re: Reverse engineering my #1 Hacker News article

#31

Post by anyonecancode »

I think there's a lot to be said for knowing your audience. I don't submit often, and most of my submissions only get a handful of points -- very rarely have I had one get onto the front page. (To be clear, I'm talking about submissions of article I found interesting, not things I've written myself, so this is a bit different than TFA's focus).

But, there was one submission I made I knew instantly would be very popular -- The elusive future of San Francisco’s fog -- 152 points, the most by far. Given that many on this forum live, work, or visit SF, and that people everywhere love to talk about the weather, and that SF's fog is an iconic aspect of SF weather, I knew there'd be interest.

Re: Reverse engineering my #1 Hacker News article

#32

Post by accoil »

dylan604 wrote: post #23
rscho wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One just needs to write "LLM" to get the same effect ;-)

at this point in time, but the rule is too specific. "One just needs to write $currentTrendingFad to get the same effect" Not too long ago it could have been crypto/blockchain, or rewriting $app in $lang That's the thing of viral is it is just trend following, so recognizing the trend helps the changes of going viral

"rewriting $app in $lang" will never go out of style

Re: Reverse engineering my #1 Hacker News article

#33

Post by m463 »

stevage wrote: post #4

I'm torn between "nice writeup" and "ugh, a guide to making viral content on HN?"

Reminds me of guides for selling something online with say, craigslist. There is probably a specific day of the week, or time of day you should post. There is a way to describe your product. There is a title you should use. Maybe you should give a phone number, maybe not. Maybe you should use the craiglist email redirection.

But in some way, I hope people don't do that with hn. I sometimes read helpful product reviews on an amazon product. "I tried the XIWSHDX salad spinner, and I found it to be very useful. blah blah."

I think I'm afraid of "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds", or possibly will just hide good organic content.

Re: Reverse engineering my #1 Hacker News article

#34

Post by rtpg »

As somebody who has had stuff from my blog hit #1... if you write interesting technical content and have a straightforward path then it usually gets rewarded.

Hell, even the example article would have probably gotten as much (if not more!) traffic by being titled "you can cross your eyes to solve find-the-difference puzzles".

Stop trying to trick people into reading your content. Write something mildly interesting, and post it.

Re: Reverse engineering my #1 Hacker News article

#35

Post by tokioyoyo »

stevage wrote: post #4

I'm torn between "nice writeup" and "ugh, a guide to making viral content on HN?"

"How to growth hack HackerNews, without saying those words out loud so I wouldn't get flamed in the comments due to the nature of my audience".

And by the way, absolutely no hate to the author, I totally get it, and fairly ambivalent to it. It is what it is.

Re: Reverse engineering my #1 Hacker News article

#38

Post by mountain_peak »

Interestingly (or possibly not), I made this [0] comment here (on HN) some time ago and was quickly informed that my technique was used in the 1960s to identify moving celestial objects in successive astronomical photographs. [2] I kind of assumed is was a fairly well-known technique, but didn't realize it also had practical use!

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37981314 [1] https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/microscope-ast...

Re: Reverse engineering my #1 Hacker News article

#39

Post by codetrotter »

numinix wrote: post #19
cafeinux wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being viral, for content, is not always bad: it can make an otherwise boring or tedious subject engaging and enjoyable (and on the other side, a fun subject might appear boring if badly written), which I think is what this article is about :-).

The title "I've acquired a new superpower" might have the most virality, but it's not a great title for users. Chasing viral content doesn't have to be bad, but you do often get this imbalance between clicks vs UX.

I thought superpower was fitting when I read it, back when the referenced post was originally posted. I was already familiar with optical illusions that you cross your eyes to see some kind of shape emerge in 2.5D

But I had never heard of using that same trick to solve puzzles where you find how two pictures differ. And I tried it out and it worked for me.

It took something I had limited application for and turned it into a slightly less limited power. And a great party trick. That’s sort of a superpower :D

Re: Reverse engineering my #1 Hacker News article

#40

Post by codetrotter »

dylan604 wrote: post #23
rscho wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One just needs to write "LLM" to get the same effect ;-)

at this point in time, but the rule is too specific. "One just needs to write $currentTrendingFad to get the same effect" Not too long ago it could have been crypto/blockchain, or rewriting $app in $lang That's the thing of viral is it is just trend following, so recognizing the trend helps the changes of going viral

The general sentiment on HN against cryptocurrency and blockchain has always been pretty negative as far as I can can remember.

A quick algolia search seems to support that too. Most of the highest voted stories about cryptocurrency and blockchain are negative news and opinions. There are a few highly voted stories about cryptocurrencies and blockchain too, but far fewer.

If you search for something specific like Bitcoin, there looks at a glance to be more positive or neutral stories with high number of votes, and still a few negative ones about that too.

You’ll often find a few positive comments on the stories though, so it’s not like everyone hates it. Not saying that. But overwhelmingly I feel that HN readers as a whole range from disinterested to actively against anything blockchain and that this has been the case for a long time.

Post reply on HN