Ask HN: How does HN ranking work?

This question is born out of curiosity - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16041795 is on the 5th page after 3 hours, 67 points & 85 comments, but https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16038243 is on the front page after 4 hours, 3 points and no comments. Another front page example is https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16037863, 4 hours, 4 points no comments (as of 1:39PM 12/31/2017).

Does it also have something to do with who submits?