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In addition to what everyone else says, it is currently a national holiday in the US and there are relatively few submissions being posted now, so new submissions can rise much easier.

If you're asking about the ranking algorithm it's described here https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html.

Because people want to highlight the ridiculousness of needing to contact support to permanently delete an online account?

You don't need to contact support. The "let us know" link goes to the deletion confirmation page.

It is stupidly worded, perhaps intentionally so to discourage deletions, but I just did this recently.