The other was more interesting. It was a "rise from the dead" post (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46466027), meaning I posted it on Jan 2 (Friday), and then on Jan 5 (Monday) I started to get emails from readers giving me feedback about the post. I had not expected that level of response...
From this experience, I learned nothing about how either the algorithm works or when the best time post is. IMO just being part of the community and showing your work frequently is the best strategy here.
Launch early, launch often - or something like that.
It's hard to tell now, but most likely your second post got "second chanced". That's where they go through things that they think might be popular and put them back on the front page, usually a couple days after they were initially posted.
Comments
Ive had 2 posts take off (>300 points) in the past 2 months. One was a project that garnered a bunch of points initially (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46793693).
The other was more interesting. It was a "rise from the dead" post (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46466027), meaning I posted it on Jan 2 (Friday), and then on Jan 5 (Monday) I started to get emails from readers giving me feedback about the post. I had not expected that level of response...
From this experience, I learned nothing about how either the algorithm works or when the best time post is. IMO just being part of the community and showing your work frequently is the best strategy here.
Launch early, launch often - or something like that.
It's hard to tell now, but most likely your second post got "second chanced". That's where they go through things that they think might be popular and put them back on the front page, usually a couple days after they were initially posted.