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How to read Hacker News – what mistake I made for 2 years

9 points by nickfos ↗ HN
I am reading Hacker News for the last 2 years. It's been a really good source of information relevant to tech and startups, which I am interested. Recently I became a member to ask a question. Not much feedback came back except from some kind advice from PG.

My next submission involved an analysis about the future of YC, which got only one feedback.

>> Who are you?

Quite a way to handle an opinion expressed.

Now I noticed one thing. I was doing something wrong for the past 2 years. I would only read the pages that are listed in the “Hacker News” tabs. Quite a mistake I think. Over time I would check the pages again and see the same posts, because they were “rated” high. I don't know who and how rates the articles (of course I read that if you want to make it to the top you call your buddies clicking your article), but it clearly does not provide a real good sense of the articles submitted.

Now I believe a lot of people provide really valuable input and I have to browse through to see what's interesting. From now on I am going to check the “New” tab just beside the bold “Hacker News”. I counted roughly 300 posts published in a day, which I can skim through in 10 min and select the postings I found relevant.

4 comments

[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 20.8 ms ] thread
Skywing
The listing of new articles is what I always read. It's what I check the most. I'll skim over the top articles once a day, or so.
cmontgomeryb
I'm doing this more and more too. It's easier than on a lot of larger sites such as Reddit as the signal to noise ratio is much more in our favour, and I do find interesting stories that never make it near the front page.
Mz
I've said something similar (ie that I think it's a mistake to spend too much time on the "home" page, basically) a couple of times or so, like here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2047397
nickfos
Maybe it would be a good thing for Hacker News to explain this little detail to new readers of the list. I had to post an article first, to really check how post ranking works.

I am not saying that some articles do not deserve to have a better chance of reading, relevant to popularity. Instead I believe it would be valuable to Hacker News to have more informed readers. Otherwise there is a big chance that the "popularity" ranking can be mishandled for a number reasons, from people trying to have a "top" posting.