I think as Jacques suggests, the problem is sheer number of submissions, combined with the way the new page seems to work by showing everything: stuff thus scrolls off the bottom much faster than it used to.
It’s unclear what could be done to counteract this.
Somebody here once suggested categories, and I think there might be some merit to that idea. It allows more new and more front page stories (if there are both new and front pages for each category) and allows people to skip categories that don't interest them. For instance, some people may prefer not to see metadiscussions like this one, and are only interested in what HN thinks are worthy industry news.
Maybe something like Reddit's "rising" page would help. Basically, somewhere that would catch all of the stories that only got ~4 upvotes on the front page, but would filter out the ones that didn't get any.
Comments
I think as Jacques suggests, the problem is sheer number of submissions, combined with the way the new page seems to work by showing everything: stuff thus scrolls off the bottom much faster than it used to.
It’s unclear what could be done to counteract this.
Somebody here once suggested categories, and I think there might be some merit to that idea. It allows more new and more front page stories (if there are both new and front pages for each category) and allows people to skip categories that don't interest them. For instance, some people may prefer not to see metadiscussions like this one, and are only interested in what HN thinks are worthy industry news.
Maybe something like Reddit's "rising" page would help. Basically, somewhere that would catch all of the stories that only got ~4 upvotes on the front page, but would filter out the ones that didn't get any.