On: Ask PG/HN: Is there something changed in the rank/sorting algorithm of HN?

[shafqat]

Yeah, I noticed that sometimes two very quick upvotes can rocket an item to the front page.

On the other hand, one of my recent ASK HN posts (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1167298) got 7 or 8 votes in the first hour but never made it anywhere near the front page, which seemed a bit weird.

Since PG says the code hasn't changed, I'd assume the number of people online and submitting during the given period has a large impact on whether any particular story will hit the front page.

[DanielBMarkham → shafqat]

I think "Ask HN" articles get special treatment in the ranking system.

[cj → DanielBMarkham]

Positive or negative treatment?

[DanielBMarkham → cj]

IIRC, Ask HN and articles with titles that end in a question mark are negatively treated compared to other articles.

[shafqat → DanielBMarkham]

If that's true, that's really too bad - ASK HN posts are one of the great differentiators about this place. They are almost always valuable, and the insight and answers provided by the community always remind me why this place is great.

[asb → shafqat]

I also often find them interesting. I recommend you read them through http://ask.searchyc.com/ as even popular questions disappear from the front page so quickly I rarely get to see them.

[pg → asb]

I thought it would be interesting to see just these posts so I whipped up something to do it:

http://news.ycombinator.com/ask

Here's what it takes to define such an operator, in case anyone's curious:

    (newsop ask ()
      (listpage user
                (msec)
                (retrieve maxend*
                          [and (>= (realscore _) front-threshold*)
                               (cansee user _)
                               (blank _!url)]
                          ranked-stories*)
                "ask"
                "Post Without Urls"
                "ask"))

[shafqat → pg]

PG - this is fantastically awesome. Your support and responsiveness is truly appreciated. If we meet in person someday, I will buy you many beers.

[huhtenberg → pg]

"Posts Without Urls"

[DXL → cj]

I believe I read sometime that all posts without a URL (i.e. "self" posts) get a discount of about 40%.