Hacker News Reader

Comment by zedshaw | Hacker News Reader

Never said ranking algorithm. I said, there's a bunch of links (like job postings and YC company PR posts) that get privileged front page status with their own decay algorithms, yet they aren't flagged as "promoted". They're just mixed in as if it's actually relevant news a bunch of people upvoted to the front page. Or how about all that crap that was on scribd back when nobody knew what scribd was? If you think this isn't a manipulated news source then you're high on a metric ton of horseshit.

View on HN

I said, there's a bunch of links (like job postings and YC company PR posts) that get privileged front page status with their own decay algorithms

You are mistaken. Only job postings have their own decay algorithm, and those are visually distinguished from stories by e.g. not having points or comments. All stories have the same decay rate.

Sometime I see articles very high up with no comments which made me think some non-job post were self promoted. but maybe thats a cache lag and the votes refresh quicker than comments?

It's not due to caching. Some stories just get a lot more votes than comments. E.g. this currently has 87 points and 1 comment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3353065

Has this always been the case? He seems to have a point with scribd, but then it could also be that there were just a lot less people voting over all back then.

Yes. There has always been a single ranking algorithm for stories.

I think HN is manipulated but in a way you're not quite insinuating. There are a few hundred YC start-ups now, and they're like a gang. They've got each other's back. When somebody wants something linked to they can count on the private YC mailing lists, requests to personal contacts, and followers' reciprocity with twitter,linkedin, and facebook. I've seen exactly this happen at a couple of YC companies when trying to get their postings about their job postings voted to the top. I've participated in it.

If YC articles have their own decay rate, then they remain on the front page longer. How is that not toying with the ranking algorithm?

I've been on HN for a long time (longer than my already pretty old profile suggests), and I've never heard about this. Apologies for the need for clarification, but this is important. It would greatly affect my attitude toward the site, and I think others' as well.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com