

Ask HN: Has front-page algorithm changed? - datashovel

Within the last few months I&#x27;ve noticed a distinct trend where I&#x27;m no longer deferring to the &quot;new&quot; link after I see that there is nothing on the front-page I find interesting.  The difference is so noticeable I&#x27;m inclined to ask if something significant has changed, such as an algorithm?
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datashovel
Several months ago: visit
[https://news.ycombinator.com/news](https://news.ycombinator.com/news) , read
list of titles, and don't click on any since none seem interesting. Defer to
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newest](https://news.ycombinator.com/newest)
because I regularly would find at least a few titles that interested me.

Now: visit
[https://news.ycombinator.com/news](https://news.ycombinator.com/news) , and
find several titles interesting, so I click on them and read them. Rarely do I
find it necessary to visit
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newest](https://news.ycombinator.com/newest) to
get to titles I find interesting.

There is nothing specific about the experience that I can pinpoint other than
that my interest in front-page articles is significantly higher now. My
default go-to hacker news page is now /news and not /newest

~~~
dang
Great, that's what I was hoping you meant, but wanted to be sure.

Yes, the algorithms have changed and so has the moderation. Our goal is to get
the highest-quality stories from the /newest stream onto the front page. We've
been attacking this problem from several different angles. I'll take your
comment as evidence that it's working!

~~~
datashovel
Absolutely working for me. Not trying to put work on your team's plate, but if
there were enough positive feedback like mine, an article about the discovery
process and implementation of the changes would be an interesting read in and
of itself. :)

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dang
I'm not sure I understand. Can you describe what you've noticed in a bit more
detail?

