
Ask HN: Can you still go to the front page with great content alone? - krausejj
I was reminded when I read &quot;Better Ways to Read Hacker News&quot; (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=15310291) that I get almost all my content from HN from hndigest.com, an (awesome!) email that links me to the top articles. I basically never interact with the front page at all.<p>I&#x27;ve also noticed recently that it&#x27;s becoming very difficult for submitted content to get <i>any</i> votes on the new page, even if it&#x27;s a damn relevant and thought provoking. I&#x27;m not just thinking of my own content that got no votes :-) But I also realize that I&#x27;m part of the problem... because I only read the stuff that&#x27;s already gone to the front page.<p>In previous jobs, I worked at companies where we could say, &quot;we just posted to HN - take a look and consider voting (from LTE!!!).&quot; This content frequently went to the front page. Content where we didn&#x27;t send this Slack message did not - ever.<p>I&#x27;m wondering: with all the passive readers, and potentially more content getting submitted generally, is it still possible to get attention on HN with a great idea alone? My personal conclusion is that it isn&#x27;t, so I&#x27;ve largely stopped posting unless I&#x27;m supported by other humans who promise to cast a few upvotes.
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byoung2
I think HN needs to consider segmenting, like Reddit does with subreddits.
This would give more content a chance to get to the front page with a relevant
audience.

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PaulHoule
Sometimes. But the odds aren't good.

HN is trying to solve this by getting good articles reposted, but from the
viewpoint of somebody running a pipeline that scans everything that gets
posted on HN, this is just adding to the noise.

