We went from #9 with a vote, submission time, and comment count matching a current top 10 post to all the way to #79 in the matter of a minute. Linked is the screenshot showing just how disproportionate the ratings are.
http://imgur.com/g3PdsNL
I'm sure some HNers have an idea of how the algorithm works or what went on here. Needless to say I'm very disappointed.
No moderator touched your post. It fell in rank because users flagged it.
It's against the HN guidelines to turn questions like this into Ask HN threads. Please don't do that. As the guidelines say, you should email hn@ycombinator.com instead.
Also: when a post is flagged, a repost counts as a duplicate. Otherwise flags wouldn't mean anything.
Things immediately went from good to bad in the matter of seconds, so there's alot of power in whatever ranking is required to "flag".
Stories cannot be downvoted (they have only an up arrow for upvotes). They can, however, be flagged (there is a "flag" link to do so between the time and the comment count.) Comments can also be flagged, as well as downvoted.
What technically, or in context of startups, is notable about the site/offer? Perhaps you'd be better blogging about pop.co's setup and submitting that if you want to use HN for promotion.
What the OPs are really saying is they'll let it slide for their friends and network, but not for those they're unfamiliar with. This is outright unacceptable behavior and I think methods of accountability should be added. If a startup didn't have friends, fans, and followers, than what do they have guys? Nothing. And I'll be damned if I don't work for an awesome startup doing awesome things that earned it's spot on the front page. It's a shame.
OP? Usually, when I've seen that in a forum, it means "Original Poster", the submitter of the post to which the comment thread is attached -- but clearly that's not what you mean here. Do you mean the mods?
And, no, the voting ring detector is, from everything that has been said about it, algorithmic, so its just as wrong for anyones "friends and network" as for anyone else's.
> This is outright unacceptable behavior and I think methods of accountability should be added.
I'm sure if you ask nicely, YC will refund 100% of the HN membership fee you paid if you are unsatisfied.
> If a startup didn't have friends, fans, and followers, than what do they have guys?
The idea of HN is that things should be promoted in visibility based on the interest to the community at large based on the content, not based on collusion of groups to promote them. Hence the voting ring detector. There's plenty of venues for promotion that don't work that way, but I don't see why anyone (other than YC) is entitled to demand that HN change.
I'd like to propose formal explanations whenever things like this occur. Accountability should be the name of the game. I want to know who performed the action, what action was performed, and why.
Time-based exponential decay is the norm. Per the FAQ [1]:
How are stories ranked?
On the front page, by points divided by a power of the time since they were submitted.
Also, from the guidelines [2]:
Please don't post on HN to ask or tell us something (e.g. to ask us questions about Y Combinator, or to ask or complain about moderation). If you want to say something to us, please send it to hn@ycombinator.com.
I wrote about my own experience/observations here:
http://micheleincalifornia.blogspot.com/2014/03/so-you-made-...
Can't be bothered to read it? The main take away is: Submit your piece, allow yourself between one and three GOOD comments, then stfu and let other people talk about your thingamajig.
Your realism and pragmatism, in offering a digest, is appreciated.
From what I can tell, there is some sort of algorithm that drops you off the front page if you comment too much in your own submissions. Most likely, the mods have good reasons for that. If you want to do well here, it helps to understand the technical environment as well as the social environment. If you don't want to understand it as a path to improving your performance, if, instead, you just want to blame someone and complain, well, it's been nice knowing you. You won't get far here. That kind of thing does not play well anywhere and it seems to play especially poorly here.