Yep, there is no magic bullet here, and I've written as much in the article. But it certainly won't hurt and it will help to improve the overall quality of the stuff that does get submitted.
Of course it would be really funny if this post didn't make it!
I've noticed lately that having a very discussable, opinionated, or judgmental topic will also propel your post. For example, meta-topics, like this, seem to do pretty well. So do articles or local posts like "Why you should[n't] X" or "[Why it's | Is it] OK to X". So, I think you'll do alright. It's an interesting topic and everybody will want to chime in about their own experience posting to HN.
My "rate my start-up" post, however, is probably going to die.
Yeah. I noticed there's also a human touch somewhere in the mix. I think the editors choose a "boost" on certain posts. It looks like mine was selected (thankfully) to benefit more per upvote/comment than yours.
Your post has more comments and upvotes than mine, but is ranked lower. It was ranked higher for a period of time, then suddenly dropped down to the bottom. Mine, on the other hand, jumps up 5 spots anytime somebody upvotes it.
Or, maybe it matters who upvotes/comments on posts. I don't know, but it's made me have more faith in HN.
Edit: I've been on here for this long and have not once ever noticed the "flag" button.
No, this post was flagged a couple of times so that's what penalized it. Flags are an input to the ranking algorithm once a post gets more than 10 upvotes.
Comments
Yep, there is no magic bullet here, and I've written as much in the article. But it certainly won't hurt and it will help to improve the overall quality of the stuff that does get submitted.
Of course it would be really funny if this post didn't make it!
I've noticed lately that having a very discussable, opinionated, or judgmental topic will also propel your post. For example, meta-topics, like this, seem to do pretty well. So do articles or local posts like "Why you should[n't] X" or "[Why it's | Is it] OK to X". So, I think you'll do alright. It's an interesting topic and everybody will want to chime in about their own experience posting to HN.
My "rate my start-up" post, however, is probably going to die.
It looks like it worked :)
Yeah. I noticed there's also a human touch somewhere in the mix. I think the editors choose a "boost" on certain posts. It looks like mine was selected (thankfully) to benefit more per upvote/comment than yours.
Your post has more comments and upvotes than mine, but is ranked lower. It was ranked higher for a period of time, then suddenly dropped down to the bottom. Mine, on the other hand, jumps up 5 spots anytime somebody upvotes it.
Or, maybe it matters who upvotes/comments on posts. I don't know, but it's made me have more faith in HN.
Edit: I've been on here for this long and have not once ever noticed the "flag" button.
No, this post was flagged a couple of times so that's what penalized it. Flags are an input to the ranking algorithm once a post gets more than 10 upvotes.