@pg are we not allowed to ask friends who enjoy this article to vote it up?
a) have people constantly moderate the new threads to see vote upcoming articles b) be a yc company so the voting-ring is then approved by you c) have you be the sole decider of what's valuable content for the readers? d) just eat it?
thoughts?
The articles about YC-funded companies don't get voted up because of voting rings. (Forgive me if I don't explain the statistical differences by which I can tell this.) They get upvoted because practically every YC founder reads this site, and they're interested in news about their friends. At worst it's a bias in the composition of the audience, not people consciously gaming the system.
I think bottom line is that if the YC community doesn't like the articles<br /> a) they won't click or read it <br /> b) they won't vote additionally after I have asked my start-up related friends to vote (not spam in the least bit)<br />
so is the solution that i only ask my yc friends to vote for my articles?
Also, reddit, unlike digg, has yet to be taken over by voting rings which is one reason it is so much better than digg. If you suspect otherwise, please email me...
This community here is great in that the system works and the best content makes it to the front page. Generally the community is offended by the notion that anyone would ever actively solicit votes for a story rather than letting the system decide. It's basically a taboo topic.
News.YC is at the opposite end of the spectrum as digg, where secret cabals of top ranked diggers choose the stories on the front page.
Anyways, please send me an email or post yours in your profile so we could talk about social media. There is a feature on this site where your email address is only available to site admins. You have to put in a despammed version in your about me.
i honestly don't think i cheated the system. i didn't realize it was illegal to ask people who read yc to upvote my articles. i should read the small print next time:) plus my article was on the homepage for about 5 seconds which isn't useful to the readers or myself.
i guess next time i will just have a few votes to get on the homepage and if it sucks then it won't go anywhere.
I wouldn't advise asking even News.YC reading friends to upvote your stories because it is, statistically, flamingly obvious when people do that, and sites that do it repeatedly eventually get banned.