HN Explorer

Ask HN: How are submissions ranked?

4 points by tl ↗ HN
What determines ranking of submissions on HN? I've seen a lot of odd rankings, but normally a story that is higher is either newer or has a greater number of points. Right now, the submission on the FCC request for comment on net neutrality is #70 (164 points, 70 comments) and a random paywalled story about a company I've never heard of getting more money than I dream of is #69 (7 points, 0 comments).

What would cause this ranking?

4 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 20.6 ms ] thread
mryall
There's a decay algorithm which scores posts based on their points and how long ago they were posted.

There are some good articles about the algorithm floating around if you Google for it.

tl
That doesn't explain why an article with more points that is a newer is below an article with fewer points that is older.
krapp
Various weights or penalties could automatically be applied, according to the posted domain, or the karma of the poster, or any number of factors. If more users comment than vote, that can cause the rank to drop, as it implies low comment quality. Replying too quickly triggers the flamewar detector, which drops the rank. Of course, user flags and downvotes affect the ranking, as does occational manual moderator intervention.

Because the staff doesn't want people to successfully game the system, much of what goes into the ranking process here is opaque, with only a few details about it leaking out from time to time. I have no special insight into it, I just know what I sometimes read.

Basically, just accept that Hacker News is not a direct democracy, but more akin the American electoral system, where your votes are more or less a suggestion passed on moderators, who make the final decision about whether or how much they count.