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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

Hiring thread. Pushed off front page. By bitcoin stories. Issue here: not complicated.

I'm not looking for a job right now, nor am I soliciting for applicants. How many people here are? If that number is lower than the number of people interested in Bitcoin, then I don't see the problem with the hiring thread falling off the front page quickly.

HN is growing. As much as it might be nice if it strictly followed the interests of the original visitors/contributors, it's not a reasonable expectation.

Meanwhile, I downvoted all posts in this meta-discussion (if you don't like a posting, just flag it and move on -- like the site guidelines tell you to do)... and yet here I am, participating. Sigh.

(For the record, my interest in Bitcoin-related articles has waned, but I could see how it'd still be notable to others.)

The hiring thread was pushed off by all the non-hiring-thread articles on the front page, was it not? Or does the front page selection algorithm do fascinating things which made only the bitcoin stories responsible?

If the thread can't compete, why is the solution penalizing Bitcoin stories?

My perception is that if you did the histogram over thread topics yesterday, bitcoin would show itself to be overrepresented. You can do the legwork on that, you can take my word for it, or you can ask me to take your word for it that I'm wrong; all are fine options.

"Overrepresented" is a judgement call. You think bitcoins are overrepresented, but I think startup stuff is overrepresented. Neither of us is right or wrong.

(Disclaimer: I do not own bitcoins)

I hope I speak for many people when I say that startup stuff can't be overrepresented on The Site Formerly Known As Startup News.

Of course it can be, because as I already pointed out "overrepresented" is in the eye of the beholder. There is no empirical measure of it, its just an opinion.

Recruiters and recruiting threads are a plague wherever hackers congregate. At any given time, hiring is of interest to only a tiny fraction of people (mostly employers, not hackers), but it is of very intense interest to them. Although I sympathize with the job-hunters and job-offerers who are trying to connect, it's hardly a malfunction when their announcements get little attention.

The HN voting system is working. Whether your favorite thread receives enough votes or not is not the issue. People are obviously interested in Bitcoin. I know I am.

I'm not sure if Bitcoin will become a new currency or if something better will come along and blow it out of the water, but I do know that it is highly likely that some crypto currency will be in use in the near future, Bitcoin or not. The reaction central banks and governments have towards Bitcoin will be interesting to watch. I'm going to sit back with a bowl of popcorn and watch the disruption.

Yes, I don't care at all about the hiring thread. So it's not like it's an unequivocable "this should be voted up 1000 times" kind of thing.

Thread you are more interested in pushed off the front page by a majority that is interested in something else. Issue here: nonexistent.

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