frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Made with ♥ by @iamnishanth

Open Source @Github

Open in hackernews

Ask HN: Should HN use a different time algorithm for post ranking?

3•thisismyswamp•4h ago
I came across this old post by @gojomo: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4758798

which suggests a different concept of time for ranking posts

the main issue trying to be solved is that currently there is an incentive to find the best time to post something, as the variance in activity causes some times to make for a higher likelihood of post popularity

the suggestion is thus for there to be a different kind of time "tick" - instead of time itself, maybe a site-wide counter of activity such as number of views, votes, or submissions

I find the idea of removing the incentive to find the best time to post interesting. I think an ideal ranking algorithm drives the correlation between the time of posting to the number of impressions on a post to zero.

Interested in hearing y'alls thoughts!

Comments

thisismyswamp•4h ago
this is another interesting comment on the issue: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41977430

but crucially, it assumes that variations in submissions and voting activity are strongly correlated, which I imagine is not necessarily the case

pvg•3h ago
I find the idea of removing the incentive to find the best time to post interesting.

That's, more or less, what the second chance pool attempts to do. As do subcategories like https://news.ycombinator.com/show which effectively extend the 'visible time in queue' for Show HN posts.

I think the underexamined assumption in a lot of these analyses is that it's hard to get a post on the HN front page. But in reality, it's relatively straightforward with a whole pile of backup mechanisms. The mystique of 'magical posting hour' draws people in but it's a lot simpler to just produce a post that matches HN's (fairly broad and loose) interestingness criteria.

mb2100•3h ago
Only Show HN posts that clear the initial hurdle of getting a few upvotes.

> matches HN's (fairly broad and loose) interestingness criteria.

this wouldn't apply then? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44500481

pvg•2h ago
No, there's also /shownew so it's not just that.

this wouldn't apply then?

Why not? Looks like a completely reasonable Show HN. Could probably use a better blurb i.e. 'tune for HN-interestingness' like I mentioned above.

Have you looked at this, for instance https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22336638

It's linked at the top of the Show HN page. You can also email the mods for help with a submission you think is a good HN submission but didn't get much attention.

Peter Jackson Tries to Resurrect a Giant Bird That Went Extinct 600 Years Ago

https://www.ign.com/articles/its-more-jurassic-park-than-lord-of-the-rings-but-peter-jackson-is-trying-to-resurrect-a-giant-bird-that-went-extinct-600-years-ago-the-celebrated-director-tells-us-why
1•HelloUsername•59s ago•0 comments

IBM Power11 Raises the Bar for Enterprise IT

https://newsroom.ibm.com/2025-07-08-ibm-power11-raises-the-bar-for-enterprise-it
1•ksec•1m ago•0 comments

Peter Jackson backs long shot de-extinction plan starring New Zealand's lost moa

https://apnews.com/article/peter-jackson-moa-de-extinction-colossal-biosciences-04260e26cbe04e787640c9502df94dda
1•petethomas•2m ago•0 comments

Synthetic Chromatophores for Color and Pattern Morphing Skins

https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.202505104
1•PaulHoule•5m ago•0 comments

Cluely filed a DMCA takedown for tweet about their system prompt

https://twitter.com/jackhcable/status/1942636823525679182
3•taytus•5m ago•0 comments

Words Don't Compile

https://blog.surkar.in/words-dont-compile
1•manthan1674•6m ago•0 comments

Facial recognition cameras could be introduced to tackle fare dodging on Tube

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/transport/facial-recognition-cameras-fare-dodging-tube-london-underground-tfl-b1237049.html
1•pseudolus•6m ago•0 comments

Dynamical origin of Theia, the last giant impactor on Earth

https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.01826
4•bikenaga•7m ago•0 comments

Judge rules that VMware must support crucial Dutch government agency migration

https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/30/dutch_agency_wins_right_to/
1•Logans_Run•8m ago•0 comments

Skia Graphite: Chrome's rasterization back end for the future

https://blog.chromium.org/2025/07/introducing-skia-graphite-chromes.html
2•ingve•8m ago•0 comments

Google's Moonshot Project Gears Up for Human Trail of AI-Designed Drugs

https://in.mashable.com/science/96798/googles-secret-moonshot-project-gears-up-for-human-trail-of-ai-designed-drugs
1•Bluestein•8m ago•0 comments

What Gets Measured, AI Will Automate

https://hbr.org/2025/06/what-gets-measured-ai-will-automate
1•Michelangelo11•8m ago•0 comments

June.so Acquired by Amplitude

https://www.june.so/blog/a-new-chapter
2•camjw•9m ago•0 comments

In Hiroshima, search for remains keeps war alive for lone volunteer

https://www.reuters.com/world/hiroshima-search-remains-keeps-war-alive-lone-volunteer-2025-07-08/
1•speckx•10m ago•0 comments

All living NASA science chiefs unite in opposition to unprecedented budget cuts

https://www.planetary.org/press-releases/nasa-science-chiefs-letter-press-release
3•consumer451•11m ago•0 comments

Thunderbird 140

https://www.thunderbird.net/en-US/thunderbird/140.0/releasenotes/
2•doener•12m ago•0 comments

Show HN: Vibes – Discover music through human stories, not algorithms

https://sharevibes.app/
2•lucascliberato•13m ago•1 comments

Framework 12 Platform Tuning for Better Performance or Power Efficiency

https://www.phoronix.com/review/framework-12-performance
2•doener•13m ago•1 comments

Mastodon's latest update readies the app for Quote Posts

https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/08/mastodons-latest-update-readies-the-app-for-quote-posts-revamps-design/
1•doener•13m ago•0 comments

What if the moon turned into a black hole? [Xkcd's What If?] [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQgw50GQu1A
1•nfriedly•14m ago•0 comments

Brut: A New Web Framework for Ruby

https://naildrivin5.com/blog/2025/07/08/brut-a-new-web-framework-for-ruby.html
11•onnnon•14m ago•1 comments

We're testing a way to auto-update docs from Slack/Zoom/email. Thoughts?

https://getautobase.com/
1•ElfDragon11•14m ago•1 comments

Rooktook.com – daily chess tournament app

1•shubhamrrawal•19m ago•0 comments

Copy/paste text to highlight AI writing patterns like "It's not X. It's Y"

https://unaiify.com/
1•justinowings•19m ago•2 comments

Show HN: A simple business management tool for small business owners

https://github.com/oitcode/samarium
1•azaz12•23m ago•0 comments

Mount Rainier Currently Experiencing an Earthquake Swarm

https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hans-public/notice/DOI-USGS-CVO-2025-07-08T14%3A41%3A41%2B00%3A00
8•jandrewrogers•24m ago•0 comments

Amazon asked corporate employees to help fulfill deliveries for Prime Day

https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazon-asked-corporate-employees-to-help-fulfill-grocery-deliveries-for-prime-day-131022042.html
2•bartekrutkowski•25m ago•0 comments

LLM-Ready Training Dataset for Apple's Foundation Models (iOS 26)

https://rileyhealth.gumroad.com/l/bwoqe
1•rileygersh•25m ago•0 comments

Announcing TypeScript 5.9 Beta

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/typescript/announcing-typescript-5-9-beta/
2•zackify•26m ago•0 comments

Show HN: We built a search engine to find properties by physical condition

https://www.casafy.ai/
1•jbuchananr•26m ago•1 comments