
Ask HN: Is Hacker News broken? - krausejj
I&#x27;ll keep it short... I&#x27;m a critic, who is also promoting an alternative (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;mendoapp.com), but  when I post something I&#x27;ve written or built on hacker news, and I have access to analytics, I see that referral traffic from hacker news is typically zero, or less than whatever vote count I receive (which is typically not a lot of votes).<p>so, based on this, I don&#x27;t believe anyone is really evaluating new submissions, and I don&#x27;t believe it&#x27;s  possible to get exposure on hacker news without a voting ring.<p>if that&#x27;s the case, can we really trust that hacker news is surfacing the best content?
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wyldfire
> I don't believe anyone is really evaluating new submissions

No doubt it's dominated by a few brave/power-hungry souls.

> I don't believe it's possible to get exposure on hacker news without a
> voting ring.

At least in my experience, I see ~15-20% of my submissions rocket to the top
of HN. It's usually a function of just how much of a draw there is from the
title.

> can we really trust that hacker news is surfacing the best content?

 _shrug_ , aside from some possible missed yet-greater-HN opportunity, it
seems like it works well enough.

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krausejj
do you feel like the 20% of your submissions that go to the top are your best
submissions?

for me, my submissions that get attention are not my best submissions, IMO.

i can spend a long time on a really thoughtful idea or product, and get zero
clicks from a hacker news submission, whereas sharing a poorly researched
press article with a clickbaity headline goes to the front page.

it's really disappointing.

~~~
yesenadam
Well, it is called Hacker News, not Hacker Show. Looking at the Show page
(which I rarely do), most of even the top page has hardly any comments. People
come here for news, to discuss things...For me, some of the best things are on
AskHN. Mostly when I've asked questions, I get little or no response. They're
things _I_ would comment on if I saw them asked, I eagerly await answers, but
usually..not much response. (I didn't post "Is Hacker News broken?" asking why
HN ignored my fascinating questions, saying how HN doesn't know quality etc.
That would've been weird, don't you think.)

People are busy with their own stuff. News, I guess, being generally informed,
comes under "one's own stuff"; checking out other's peoples' stuff, especially
the new and untested, is something else. Probably mostly not worth bothering
about.

Why assume the voting would be accurately proportional to the quality of the
submission? Although you seem to be comparing News clicks with Show clicks -
apples with oranges. It's hard to put oneself in the shoes of an imagined HN
reader, what would make them want to click through to something. Probably it's
good that people can't guess - if it was the total 'echo chamber' it's accused
of being, people would share more similar taste, I guess.

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gus_massa
I usually read the newest page. It's full of crap but form time to time you
can find something interesting to upvote. (I use "show dead", the [dead] post
are even worst, but from time to time you can find some false positive that
deserves a vouch.) Please consider spending some time in the newest page.
(disclaimer: I don't like threads with more than 100 comments, so looking at
the newest page is a good way to find interesting post without a discussion
that is totally out of control.)

I submit stories from time to time, very few, like one per month. Some are my
own post and some are thing that I found. I don't use a voting ring, and
approximately 1/3 of my submissions get 10 or more upvotes. I have a few with
more than 100 votes.

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Nomentatus
There are forum systems in which shadow-banned people can see and interact
only with other shadow-banned people. It would not be surprising if those who
submit their own sites as regular stories end up quickly shadow-banned to
discourage that practice.

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jstewartmobile
HN is a heavily moderated asset of a seed accelerator. I wouldn't be so sure
that surfacing the best content is even the objective.

Lobste.rs seems a little more tech-centric. Reddit seems a little more open.
All are limited by STEM groupthink, but HN is the 800lb gorilla for the time
being, so we all just have to put that in our pipes and smoke it.

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_Schizotypy
That depends on your definition of "best" which is entirely subjective

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krausejj
it's subjective, but i think most would agree that "best" doesn't mean
"requires a voting ring to get actual consideration" or "requires a super-
clickbaity title" (like the title of this post)

