
When is a good time to submit a story to Hacker News? - ColinWright
http://hnpickup.appspot.com/#flip
======
ColinWright
It's been pointed out to me that this has been submitted before:

* <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3251877>

* <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3703024>

In fact, the question has been discussed several times:

* [http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=title%3A%28...](http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=title%3A%28submit+time%29&start=0)

My personal observation is not quite the same as DanI-S who says:

    
    
        it is apparent that timing, rather than
        the quality of the link, decides whether
        or not something reaches the front page.
    

( <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4058699> )

My observation is that it is a combination of timing, title, content, and
luck. Timing does play a huge part in it, but if an item has significant
merit, it usually (or at least often) does well despite poor timing.

It's complicated, and unless you pay attention, good items will pass you by.
That's why I'm working on a site to augment HN and try to capture good items.

~~~
bretthardin
I just went to the site and nothing is being presented to me. I would assume I
am supposed to see a graph?

~~~
icoder
Same here (Chrome on Ubuntu)

~~~
laundrysheet1
Nothing here as well (Chrome on Windows)

------
DanI-S
To anyone who spends any significant amount of time on here, it is apparent
that timing, rather than the quality of the link, decides whether or not
something reaches the front page.

Is this a feature or a bug?

~~~
makecheck
I wonder what would change if, say, all submissions within a time interval
(like one hour) were collected and then posted all at once, at the top of the
hour, in random order.

~~~
ilamont
How would that affect flagging?

~~~
makecheck
The random posting order could allow the "most objectionable" of all new
articles to appear further down the list and last a bit longer than it might
have otherwise. I think people watching the new-list will still be thorough;
if something shouldn't be posted, it will be flagged eventually.

------
EzGraphs
More eyes on HN = more chance for quick up-votes = greater likelihood of
hitting front page.

Part of the reason I set up <http://hn4d.com> was to get a sense of how much
activity was going on at a given time. Can't say I have done any sort of
rigorous testing though.

Link title and content also matter - as well as a link's relationship to other
posts that have captured the hn community's attention..

~~~
ColinWright
More eyes on HN probably means items being submitted more quickly, hence less
time on the "newest" page in which to get noticed.

------
amorphid
When you have something worth submitting.

------
monsterix
Wow! Bang on time and strange too @colinwright - I have been thinking of
timing our post on HN, and amazing that this is second time this week, that
you've come to my rescue.

------
zerop
Dont submit when any big company product is going to be launched or any Big
event is going to occur like IPO etc I dont like to submit on holidays &
weekend.

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eeirinberg
not working for me...

~~~
ColinWright
Quite possibly just killed by the load HN puts on it when submitted at a good
time. Ironic, isn't it.

------
rsanchez1
I know that it is definitely not a good time to submit a story when someone
else has submitted that same story. If your link goes into the story with more
detail, fine, but when everyone submits the same story from 10 different tech
blogs, which are just echo chambers of the same story anyway, that is not
good.

