HACKER Q&A
📣 ColinWright

A submission every 40 seconds ... do you follow the “New” page?


A submission every 40 seconds ... do you follow the “New” page?


  👤 NotAWorkNick Accepted Answer ✓
Typically I browse the HN front page down to the third or fourth page a few times/day (not logged in) and then browse the 'New' section (logged in) and browse down to the 5th, 6th, 7th or 8th page page to upvote things that seem interesting (to me).

Not sure how a single data point helps nor even what the 'question behind the question' is but hth.

[Edit to add that I have 'Show Dead' enabled when logged in]


👤 nonrandomstring
I do, and I find it fascinating that HN is somewhat a victim of its own success in terms of churn. As a reader its disorienting to see things in the New pages and be unable to find them 5 minutes later.

After reading HN for years I only created an account recently, shamelessly because I wanted to submit things related to work I am doing.

But the fire-hose of submissions means that links to articles, results and papers I'd like to share just get swept downstream in minutes. It actually makes one feel a bit paranoid, that there's a "conspiracy of suppression" against challenging ideas going on here. I don't seriously think that, rather that there's just too much competition for attention, and too little real attention being given.

Where does that leave us? It's discouraging for researchers and authors who would like feedback from a more general audience to submit here. There is a temptation to be an asshole and repeatedly submit materials until they gain traction, but that just feels cheap and anti-social. Meanwhile the same old popular stories that are circulating on other tech/hacker sites seem to get recirculated ad-nauseum. This lowers the quality and perception of a community of ideas that HN has enjoyed.

Something needs doing to rate limit and filter the input here. But I don't know what. Probably what is good for researchers like me is bad for some other group of interests. However you cut it there's a kinda tragedy of the commons going on where low attention is creating too much velocity and shallowness.


👤 mtmail
I do. Great to give the first upvote (or click 'vouch') and later find the submission with lots of comments on the frontpage.

👤 beardyw
This is a source of guilt for me. I am so pleased when the first person up-votes or comments on one of my few submissions. But I find the New page overwhelming. Maybe they are using keywords which my submission stumbles upon? Or maybe that's my excuse.

Resolution to check the New page more often.

[edit - will now be the first thing I see]


👤 mindcrime
I check the "new" page multiple times per day generally. I don't claim to have looked at (even a glance) every post that gets submitted, but I look at (and possibly upvote, vouch, or flag) a pretty good portion of them.

And yes, I also have ShowDead turned on.


👤 PaulHoule
Yes