

How to get to the top of HN – and it's not gaming the system - richardbrevig
http://mattkremer.com/how-to-get-to-the-top-of-hacker-news/

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minimaxir
You say to get to the top of the front page... "you have to produce excellent
content or an excellent product."

That shouldn't have to be explained.

Yes, you can get to the top of the front page when submitting your own
content. (I've done it multiple times, and with my domain name the same as my
username, it's obvious it's my own content. Check my submission history.) What
you did in your original post was _game the system_ , which is a completely
different story than just posting content that is not high quality.

~~~
richardbrevig
It's not my article. And I agree with you on that point, where I believe this
article has value is in this quote:

"You have to produce content that someone else would willingly share without
being coerced."

As I try to think of ways to make it to #1 on HN, a concern of mine has been
not submitting too much "flop" content and "spamming" the system. His
suggestion is to allow someone else to submit it, and that validates that
there is value to at least someone other than just promoting yourself.

That's a valuable thought and reminder. At least is was to me. :p

Follow up: I remember your [http://minimaxir.com/2014/07/show-
hn/](http://minimaxir.com/2014/07/show-hn/) post. Pretty interesting stuff.

~~~
mkremer90
Hey Richard, thanks for posting this!

That is -definitely- the point I was trying to get across. Instead of looking
like a spammer, if someone posts your articles of their own volition, it is an
immediate validation that the article has the possibility of making it to the
front page.

I'm not saying you can't submit yourself, just taking the more "scientific"
approach that if someone else submits, you success will most likely have a
higher probability.

