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How we hack Hacker News and consistently hit the front page

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

#71

Post by dangwhy »

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…

> It will be interesting to see how tactics like this one evolve as ChatGPT use becomes more widespread.

Do you think its possible for generated content to hit frontpage. I thought most of the stuff it generated is pretty prosaic. Also not sure if have an objection to chatgpt content hitting frontpage.

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

#73

Post by jgimenez »

robust-cactus wrote: post #22

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.

But how long until someone misreads this and understands a ChatGPT-based bot is what they need, to summarize news and spam HN continuously?

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

#75

Post by Operyl »

hamallama wrote: post #59
burnished wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just out of curiosity, what sort of answer are you expecting? Your post reads as vaguely accusatory to me - like you're implying that messes are being left intentionally

Shills don't care about their accounts, just that they spray their message around. Just curious if the silent system works fast enough. For my curiosity, by the way, my account was rate limited. Thanks Dang.

Your account was likely rate limited because you decided to make a new account here, and new accounts have severe limitations on rate of posting comments. You could have just as easily decided to use your existing account and would've been fine.

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

#76

Post by idopmstuff »

jgimenez wrote: post #73
robust-cactus wrote: post #22

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.

But how long until someone misreads this and understands a ChatGPT-based bot is what they need, to summarize news and spam HN continuously?

I'm sure lots of people spam HN, but it doesn't get upvoted.

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

#77

Post by idopmstuff »

dangwhy wrote: post #71
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…

> It will be interesting to see how tactics like this one evolve as ChatGPT use becomes more widespread. Do you think its possible for generated content to hit frontpage. I thought most of the stuff it generated is pretty prosaic. Also not sure if have an objection to chatgpt content hitting frontpage.

Assuming it does so by getting legitimately upvoted by us regular human HN readers, I don't see a problem with it.

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

#78

Post by thewildginger »

waboremo wrote: post #37
robust-cactus wrote: post #22

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.

In other words, they had to hack their own system to get anyone to pay attention to the advice of creating informative articles with a story to tell.

This is like that 4chan post about a guy who tries to cheat on a test and ends up studying and does well on it.

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

#79

Post by personjerry »

robust-cactus wrote: post #22

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.

Reminds me of that cheat in school where if you just memorize all the information in the textbook you can answer every question with 100% accuracy

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

#80

Post by renonce »

robust-cactus wrote: post #22

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.

At least it’s a fair game here. It could have been unfair if, for example, the audience cannot verify the truthfulness of the article, which would promote cheap fake but interesting articles.
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