Ask HN: How do you judge a HN submission and act on it?

2 points by karmiphuc 10 years ago | 2 comments

I'm really curious about how HN audience shape the content quality: - The title may be unattractive, so what drives you to read them?

- After reading or skimming, what drives you to comment or upvote the submission?

Thanks.

dalke 10 years ago |

Your question is too broad to answer. Why not assume it's the same as for the readers of any other forum system, or for yourself? How would that assumption not be useful?

BTW, of your 14 submissions, 3 are AskHns and 2 appear to be your own writing on Medium. Are you asking us for help in how to SEO ourselves to read or reply to your content?

If so, there's a long process of trying to figure out what it is that you find interesting, which isn't already covered by others, and writing or commenting about it and finding an audience[1]. There can be shortcuts - "5 better ways to compile your code!" - but it's always seemed a crowded field.

[1] I have an interest in the early history of chemical information. Which has an audience of a few hundred people. I've been researching it as a hobby for several years. Any title will likely be unattractive to HN readers. :)

stray 10 years ago |

I think most people just read /new -- at least that's what I do. And afaict, the only thing that shapes /new is time always appearing to move in the same direction.

I comment on things I'm interested in. But not always. Often, whatever I would have said had already been said by the time I got there.

I don't usually vote because I don't care about votes. Frankly, I don't see the point.