The Best Time to Post on Hacker News (2012)

The best time to post on Hacker News is when you have an interesting story that is deeply interesting, not shallow, and which fits the Hacker News guidelines.[1] Or when you have just written such a story, and have put it up on the World Wide Web. And preferably not right after you have just submitted another story. Other than that, I've seen stories that are really, really good (as I know because I read them) submitted by other users sink like a rock at all different times of the day. And I have seen crap stories (as I also know, because I have read them) somehow reach the top of the main page at all hours of the day and all days of the week. (The moderation team here at Hacker News, of which I am no part, is still working on how to reduce that problem.) The weirdest thing I have seen is soon resubmissions of stories that sank the first time do MUCH better the second or third time they are submitted. I have no idea how that happens. A lot of the response to stories is random. I check the new page of Hacker News frequently (that's how I found this question) and I try to upvote what I find interesting. I reply to some--not all--of the stories or user questions that I have something to say about. Everybody else here upvotes stories or questions (or not) and upvotes or downvotes comments (or not), and somehow the user behavior interacts with the site algorithms to determine what becomes most visible to the most users here. Good luck with your projects this year.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Other than a front page badge of honor, what is the benefit of reaching the front page? I've read pretty profound articles a few pages in which only had a few points

I'm interested to know the best day to post as well.

I started to take notes about the success of my own personal submissions but not those of others.

I have observed that visitors from HN generally have a lower bounce rate at my site than do those who come from elsewhere.

My real objective in posting anything at HN is to get people two read my essays about my mental illness, the most significant of which are linked at the top of every page on my site. I don't want to just repeatedly post links to those essays, so I post other things, in hopes that those who read those other things, stick around to read about my mental illness.