This was the case here: that site has been the source of, not spam exactly (which is why it isn't banned), but a lot of unsubstantive and/or derivative articles. The post you submitted is an example of the latter, since it was derived from a Reddit thread.

The penalties I'm talking about don't make it impossible for a story to get traction, but they do set the bar higher. So you were right that it was randomness, but the randomness was also skewed.