Ask HN: (meta) Etiquette of submitting own stuff

4 points·singular··5 comments

Hi,

I wondered what people's thoughts were on the etiquette of submitting your own stuff to HN.

Specifically: if I write a post which I think addresses an interesting point which would appeal to hackers and is something I'd appreciate the opinions of HNer's on, is it ok to submit it?

Thanks in advance, and sorry if this has already been asked a thousand times!

View on HN

It's been asked in the past, the general consensus has been that while it's perfectly fine and acceptable to submit your own stuff, you'll find over time that it's more beneficial if other people find your prose interesting enough to submit it for you.

In the meantime, if you have something to offer, submissions are free, so go ahead and give it a shot.

If you took the time to write it, and it's relevant, why the hell not?

Agreed. I think the ability to start posts on HN (the Ask HN variety) suggests that submitting your own content is welcome. If the content is relevant then it gets voted up.

I've never understood peoples concerns over this — the whole point of social news that it doesn't matter who submits it, people will just upvote what they like, so I see no problem what so ever with it.

Basically you are free to submit your own stuff, and other people are free to not up-vote it if they don't like it. Of course, if you self-submit a bunch of your stuff and no one up-votes it then you will lower your karma average, which also lowers the worth of your vote when your up-vote or down-vote.

It is best to try to keep your karma average as high as possible.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com