Ask HN: Has the scoring system for articles changed recently?

3 points·llambda··3 comments

This is probably completely coincidental, but I've noticed several posts with three or four points that are nearly an hour old or older on the front page. Is this normally how the scoring system works?

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Yes. Items rise with points, sink with time and flags, and are penalized if they don't actually have a link (such as your question here). If items get a few votes very early, and it's a reasonably quiet time, 4 or 5 votes can easily be enough to get to the front page for a time.

It may be that there have been recent scoring tweaks, but your observations don't really support the conclusion.

Disclaimer: I'm just a user, I have no inside knowledge.

It actually used to happen more than it is now, the dynamic of HN is definitely changing though, more so due to the change in HN's demographics than anything else.

It used to be the case that an article with more than 100 upvotes was something really special, now half the articles on the front page have that many votes.

Articles have to be much more mainstream in order to have a chance on the front page. Hence the fact we have far more tabaloidy type articles like "Here’s How U.S. Spies Will Find You Through Your Pics", "Another Airbnb Victim Tells His Story" and "Getting Bin Laden" on the front page.

Not sure I like this change in demographics... :\ But it seems to happen to all communities like HN.

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