HN Explorer

Ask HN: Is it OK to put “share your comments on HN thread” in your blog post?

12 points by cocktailpeanuts ↗ HN
Before I begin, I want to be clear I'm not trying to blame anyone and just asking because I am really curious how HN policy works.

As an avid HN reader, I sometimes come across blog posts that link to the HN thread. They say something along the lines of "Discuss this on HN", etc. Here's an example that's on the front page right now: https://www.cockroachlabs.com/blog/how-were-building-a-business-to-last/ (Again, I'm not blaming anyone, and I think these guys deserve to be on the front page)

I know that HN has a voting ring algorithm that penalizes direct links (For example, it's a common knowledge that when you share something on HN you should never share the HN link directly), and I'm sure these guys know what they're doing (and apparently so, since it's on the front page, they must be doing something right).

So, I'm curious, is it OK to link to a HN thread from a blog post?

5 comments

[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 25.5 ms ] thread
CaliforniaKarl
I didn't know that HN penalizes posts that people direct-link.
OJFord
I don't think it does?

Isn't that exactly OP's point: HN doesn't penalise, therefore they get a boost on HN by passing on their own traffic (the boost leads to more traffic for them, ...) and is that 'OK'?

nodesocket
Unless HN was scraping the blog post, how would they know the blog post has a direct link to the HN post?

The only thing I can think of, is that HN looks at the referer. If the referer is from the same domain as the HN post url submitted, perhaps they flag that.

gravypod
The Origin headers I'd think. Right? From that if all the users commenting are from the same Origin that might look fishy.
giaour
It's not a voting ring; the blog maintainer just doesn't want to host comments on their site. I don't see why that should be penalized.