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Comment on Top domains on HN by average score (warning: check comments first)

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Sites based on the real name of their primary writer are very strong: graham, sivers, yegge, shaw, buchheit, maroon, joel, aaron, pmarca, ejohn, godin. (A message about authenticity, voice, and personal brands?)

Other sites known as the outlet of a single author also do well: catonmat, daringfireball, raganwald, blogmaverick, avc.

While I have no evidence to support this, I would guess this has to do with the editing process. Comparing this list to http://top.searchyc.com/domains, you see a lot of similar results. The difference is that some of them have quite a lot of results (Techcrunch, Wired), but not nearly as high of a average score.

In fact, it looks like the sites hitting the top of the list for average score are ones that are written by a single author, who has several strong opinions (ZedShaw is a good example). Since Hacker News doesn't allow down voting, it seems that by draw up a commotion, and getting people interested in a semi-controversial idea is what wins votes here.

Not surprising really. Anyone blogging under their own name (whether in the URL, or where it's blatantly obvious like Cuban or Fred Wilson) is going to put at least a little more thought into what they post. People blogging for reasons other than selling ads are going to be direct and filter out more of the "crap".

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