frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Ask HN: Erratic HN front page algorithm

6•7777777phil•21h ago
Last week I had two submissions reach the HN front page. Before that, I assumed the ranking followed a roughly monotonic time-decay curve once a post peaked. While watching these two posts, I noticed something different: their rank would sometimes improve after declining, and occasionally oscillate back and forth (Here is a graph showing this behavior: https://imgur.com/a/AQnSh6I). what mechanisms in the HN ranking algorithm cause this kind of non-monotonic movement. Is it due to vote weighting, comment activity, re-ranking batches, or something else?

The graph is from: https://track-hacker-news.com/

EDIT: This is the post referenced: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46512881

Comments

r721•19h ago
1) Flags ("enough flags will strongly reduce the rank of the submission")

2) Flame-War Detector ("A good rule of thumb for this effect is when the number of comments on a submission exceeds its score.")

Quotes from here: https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-undocumented

7777777phil•19h ago
1) But then why would it come back again. 2) Maybe that yes, but then same question as with (1)
journal•6h ago
I bet if you saw the source code for how the algorithm really worked and what options admins have behind the scenes, will make you vomit.

Ask HN: What are you working on? (January 2026)

250•david927•1d ago•817 comments

Unpopular Opinion: Bootstrap is a better front-end framework than Tailwind

11•pyeri•8h ago•13 comments

Ask HN: Where is all the protest music?

3•swiper_lux•3h ago•4 comments

Ask HN: Job seekers, what's working / not working?

16•Jabbs•1d ago•15 comments

Tell HN: DigitalOcean's managed services broke each other after update

61•neilfrndes•13h ago•43 comments

Ask HN: Erratic HN front page algorithm

6•7777777phil•21h ago•3 comments

Ask HN: Speculate About a Hypothetical Cyber Exploit That Would Leverage AI

3•burnerToBetOut•15h ago•1 comments

Ask HN: How do you automate your release notes?

9•dustfinger•21h ago•13 comments

Ask HN: When has a "dumb" solution beaten a sophisticated one for you?

12•amadeuswoo•2d ago•15 comments

Ask HN: Should I shutdown my 20 year old SaaS sideline?

3•pohwp•17h ago•12 comments

Tell HN: Mattermost "upgrade" to v11 enforces 10k UI message limit

5•nemosaltat•16h ago•3 comments

Ask HN: Senior engineering mngrs: how has AI changed your day-to-day work?

35•kitetm•3d ago•8 comments

Ask HN: Has anyone built payment flows inside AI voice calls?

6•wasiyc•1d ago•1 comments

Ask HN: Best way to find chill job where I can learn and grow as a swe

35•digitdiglet•4d ago•43 comments

Ask HN: Is Programming as a Profession Cooked?

19•fnoef•2d ago•32 comments

Ask HN: What business processes still waste time every week?

5•lzr_mihnea•1d ago•9 comments

Tell HN: Auto-download in Apple Podcasts is so unreliable it's basically useless

4•garyfirestorm•1d ago•4 comments

Ask HN: Is it time for HN to implement a form of captcha?

89•Rooster61•4d ago•136 comments

Ask HN: What are you proud of about doing for you health and wellness regularly?

11•nemath•23h ago•14 comments

Ask HN: Iran has now been offline for 100 hours. What can we "technically" do?

7•us321•16h ago•13 comments

Ask HN: Senior software engineers, how do you use Claude Code?

15•allie1•2d ago•13 comments

Ask HN: Would you pay for a privacy-first social platform?

11•sammiej•2d ago•10 comments

Why are so many images now in unusual file formats?

5•paulpauper•17h ago•7 comments

Tell HN: Get a dying iPhone 12 mini in 2026

28•remywang•4d ago•24 comments

Implementing NaN Boxing in a Stack-Based VM

5•tracyspacy•5d ago•0 comments

Aaron Swartz died 13 years ago today

91•vitaelabitur•1d ago•6 comments

Ask HN: Moved to SF to build a startup. What next?

7•kvaranasi_•1d ago•4 comments

Ask HN: What was the best sci-fi book of 2025?

14•Erikun•1d ago•1 comments

Ask HN: How would you decouple from the US?

38•yawa_me_worht•5d ago•22 comments

Ask HN: Cheaper Datadog anyone?

6•kvaranasi_•1d ago•11 comments