
Ask HN: How are stories ranked on HN? - _curious_
Hello, I&#x27;m a few weeks new here and learning the ropes.  I&#x27;m curious to learn more about how stories are actually ranked on HN?<p>I understand per the FAQ that  &quot;The basic algorithm divides points by a power of the time since a story was submitted.&quot; Is there any further specifics about the basic algorithm that anyone knows and willing to share?<p>Moreso, the FAQ makes it clear that &quot;moderator intervention&quot; is a factor. Is there anything more known about this how this manual human aspect affects what we as a community will see ranked higher or lower?<p>Appreciate the opportunity to learn more about how stories are actually ranked on HN. Hopefully no-one takes any issue with asking or discussing transparency here.  Thank you.<p>Edit to add: I see the moderators removed &quot;actually&quot; from the title, that&#x27;s interesting.
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bigiain
You can ask for transparency all you like, but nobody owes it to you.

YC has at least two vested interests in keeping it under wraps. 1) If
everybody knew the algorithm, it'd get SEO-style abused even worse than it
does already. 2) YC aren't in the business of running a tech discussion web
forum, they're VCs aiming for 100x exits for their investments, and this site
is one of the tools in their arsenal to improve that chances of that
happening, so to expect "transparency" on an asset like this website is kinda
insane.

Ultimately though, unless you're trying to game the rankings (in which case I
couldn't care less how difficult you're finding it), you should just treat
that FAQ answer as "close enough, barring details of fraud prevention", and
get on with reading/voting/participating.

(If you're just being intellectually curious, there have been old copies of
the arc source code around, you'll need to learn a specific dialect of Lisp to
understand it, and the publicly available code explicitly leaves out most off
the fraud prevention or any other YC-specific modifications this site runs...)

~~~
kazinator
I don't think that the way HN ranks stories to the front page makes any
difference to anyone's investments, let alone a 100X exit type difference.

I've seen little evidence since joining in 2014 against the hypothesis that
everything here is simply about maintaining quality and topical interest.

(Sorry, I can't even begin connect the dots about how some cool hack (say Pac
Man that fits into a boot sector) being #4 on the front page generates ROI for
some VC, but I had a good chuckle.)

I also don't think that blatant spammers would be easily able to manipulate
the ranking even if they knew exactly how it is done. I have faith that HN
would be on to their antics in a heartbeat.

~~~
bigiain
AT the very least, YC use this site as an exclusive recruiting tool for YC
backed companies "Another kind of job ad is reserved for YC-funded startups.
These appear on the front page, but are not stories: they have no vote arrows,
points, or comments.", and as a way to build their own reputation amongst a
particular section of the tech/software community.

Pac Man in a boot sector and similar stories keep you (and me) coming back
here.

Both of these objectives are not targeted at investors, but are without doubt
helpful in assisting YC backed companies find and hire "A players" at a higher
rate that they'd be able to without this site, and that is almost certainly a
significant factor in some/all of their 100x (or 20x or 3x) successes.

And if you don't think blackhat SEO-type spammers wouldn't destroy this site
in a heartbeat if they had an accurate understanding of the algorithms and
tools used to moderate it, perhaps you should cast your mind back to the days
before SEOs and Google "ruined the internet". :sigh:

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mtmail
[https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-
undocumented/blob/m...](https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-
undocumented/blob/master/README.md) (and discussion
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19212822](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19212822))

~~~
_curious_
Thank you, I learned some things.

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zw123456
Biting my tongue here as hard as I can... But, karma points ? the first time I
say it was like 1991 maybe. Let's think here for a bit, what would be a way to
take the opinion of the masses, but weigh that against.. let's say some other
possible considerations. Like maybe let people voice diverse opinions ? Or
unique ideas? I am suggesting that maybe as a group, let's stretch our
thinking here a bit. How can we balance filtering nutty stuff from interesting
diverse thinking? Any ideas out there ? Discussion anyone?

~~~
_curious_
Open to discussion, but it's not clear what you would like to discuss -
there's a lot of apparent questions posed in your response?

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kazinator
"Actually" is a filler adverb that is often no better than ", like, " or
"uhm".

Of course you want the facts, and not some fictional story.

Most adverbs add nothing to a corpus. Before hastily putting down any adverb,
if you stop and pause momentarily to think whether it is really necessary,
your writing will totally improve.

~~~
_curious_
Thanks for the feedback. How could the title/ask/question have been better
worded in seeking specific details beyond what is already available in the FAQ
section under exact same question? Further feedback on improving my writing is
welcome!

