Hacker News Reader

Oh oh oh, so true. I love that you just called this out.

I would like to hear what you think you know about this, and how.

A large part of our job is trying to prevent HN from being gamed. YC startups don't get to do that any more than others, and if we notice egregious cases we email them and give them an extra scolding.

It's so true. Every time a YC startup launches, there is an upvote ring from YC I think. They reach front page so quickly. Sick practices :(

Posts that start with "Launch HN" get placed on the front page similarly to how job ads do. These are the two formal things that HN gives back to YC in exchange for funding it: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme.... The difference is that job ads can't be upvoted and decline in rank as a function of time, while Launch HNs can be upvoted and get ranked like regular stories after the initial placement.

Posts by YC startups after their initial launch don't get any special treatment. If a submission doesn't say "Launch HN", it's subject to the same rules as everything else.

Edit: HN also displays YC alumni names in orange to other YC alumni.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com