The problem is the ranking system and algorithm itself. The karma system incentivizes posting similar articles to the top articles either on the same day or a few days later thus creating a front page covering the same topic. And people seem to up vote every article on the topic ...
In a strange positive feedback cycle, the fact that the poster's karma is considered in placement effectively ensures that the voices of a few (the top 25 or so based on karma) dominate the flow (both of comments and of posts), rendering HN the front page of the few with sufficient karma.
I am unable to find the link at the moment, but tptacek explicitly noted that one of his comments were pegged to the top but some other comment, that he admitted was better and should have been at the top, wasn't rising naturally. That type of situation should never happen.
That may be the case with comments but I don't believe it is the case with stories. The only thing that may be a factor is the age of the account, if it is a very new account (minuets old) then it may be harder to get on to the homepage but I don't believe your karma has any impact.
Comments
The problem is the ranking system and algorithm itself. The karma system incentivizes posting similar articles to the top articles either on the same day or a few days later thus creating a front page covering the same topic. And people seem to up vote every article on the topic ...
In a strange positive feedback cycle, the fact that the poster's karma is considered in placement effectively ensures that the voices of a few (the top 25 or so based on karma) dominate the flow (both of comments and of posts), rendering HN the front page of the few with sufficient karma.
I am unable to find the link at the moment, but tptacek explicitly noted that one of his comments were pegged to the top but some other comment, that he admitted was better and should have been at the top, wasn't rising naturally. That type of situation should never happen.
That may be the case with comments but I don't believe it is the case with stories. The only thing that may be a factor is the age of the account, if it is a very new account (minuets old) then it may be harder to get on to the homepage but I don't believe your karma has any impact.