Ask HN: What determines Hacker News frontpage status?

7 points by paul9290 14y ago ↗ HN

First I want to say I thoroughly enjoy being part of this community. I joined in June 2007 and Hacker News has been a destination I visit multiple times a day since.

Though I am curious how HN frontpage news is determined? Is it algorithmic or it's controlled by editors at YCombinator?

I am asking because out of nowhere a fellow HN reader graciously, posted a link to our start-up CodePupil.com. We were FORTUNATE to have this post appear on the front-page for 20 minutes. .

First we want to say we are flattered that another HN reader thought enough of our work to create a post about it. Thank you very much!

We were even more thrilled when it had the fortunate to land on the front page http://bit.ly/yOvn9t for 20 minutes.

Of course we wished the post could have been up longer and wondered how HN frontpage news is determined?

2 comments

[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 12.7 ms ] thread

dangrossman 14y ago ↗

With the exception of job ads it's algorithmic. Stories are ranked by points (from people voting by clicking the up arrow) divided by some non-linear function of time. If a story gets any votes within the first few minutes, that's usually enough to put it somewhere on the front page.

Your link only got a couple of votes, so as time progressed it dropped in position fairly quickly until it was gone. Compare your story (10 points) to the current front page (248 points for the #1 link).

paul9290 14y ago ↗

thanks for the insightful comment, Dan!

Indeed it did not get a ton votes, thus we were double surprised to see it get to the front page.

Though whoever HN reader "karlzt," thanks again! You made our evening, day and week - cheers!