The Best Time to Submit to HN Is...

Did Schrödinger's cat just meow? People will try to submit their stuff during good times and skew the data soon.

AppEngine quotas killed the page.

http://hnpickup.appspot.com/dm.json?ndata_elements=1 :

OverQuotaError: The API call datastore_v3.RunQuery() required more quota than is available.

I always understood HN to be more a place for sharing interesting stories than a machine for garnering attention, but the very idea of a "best time" seems to imply a secondary motive for sharing a link. Not sure I'm comfortable with that.

Love the graph. Would love to know the sample size of the data.

I assume you posted this at the "best" time possible, right? Its performing OK i would say but I guess you cant always rely on the data alone...

Anecdotally, I've had the best luck on weekends. There seem to be less submissions so your stuff can make last on the front page a little bit longer.

If you really want easier success on HN, be topical. Notice how stories about a certain topic often come in 'waves'? You can ride those.

Doing it all on time is like noticing most DJs drink Red Bull instead of Coke and drinking Red Bull to improve your chances of becoming a DJ ;-)

I was especially glad to see this, since a 'AskHN' post I submitted once didn't get any responses.

But...

All I see is a grey page with some text surrounding the middle area. No data.

On Firefox, IE & Chrome.

I bookmarked it anyway, so I can look at it after it works again, which I hope is soon.

Right now it's 15 hours after the post was submitted to HN.

Sweet post! Could you create a buffer like app for posting to hackernews which just posts at the right time to maximize the time to pick up the story?

Ummm, correlation does not imply causation?