My Daily Lesson in Hacker News Etiquette

1 points by jannesblobel 245 days ago | 5 comments

TLDR: HN kept changing my `Launch HN` post to `Show HN`

My last post was about what I’m working on. We had just launched, and I was excited to hear some feedback.

Full of anticipation, I used the prefix `Launch HN` in the title and clicked Submit.

After rereading the post, I noticed the title was wrong. It said `Show HN: ... `instead of `Launch HN: ....`

I assumed I had made a mistake, so I edited the post and changed the title back to `Launch HN`.

I pressed Submit again—only for it to revert to Show HN.

After repeating this a few times, deleting the post, and submitting it again, I finally realized it wasn’t me.

It was HN.

I’m glad I learned something new about Hacker News and the etiquette today. I’ll keep going, and eventually I’ll be able to post something that someone else wants to see.

For now, I’ll just take a quick look at what’s new on HN and call it a day.

gnabgib 245 days ago |

This was answered by mods in your recent post Ask HN: Does anyone understand how Hacker News works? (238 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46307306

Dang https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46316181

> It's true that HN sponsors Launch HNs (and Show HNs) by YC startups.

tomhow https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46322023

> Apart from job postings and Launch HNs, YC-funded startups don't have access to any information or influence that isn't available to anyone else.

tomhow 244 days ago |

If you want to demo your project to the HN community you can just email us (hn@ycombinator.com) and we'll give you feedback, both on your project (well, our perception of it) and your post. We do this multiple times per day.

I don't see what the grounds for complaint is here.

jannesblobel 244 days ago | |

I didn't mean to complain at all. It was just an observation I wanted to share. I didn't know that HN did that.

tomhow 244 days ago | | |

OK :)

Posts like that - i.e., meta discussion, or posting on HN to ask or state something about HN - are best avoided.

These things are easy enough to find out via HN Search or Google or minimaxir’s unofficial documentation, and failing that, anyone can email us and we usually reply quickly.

It’s important that posts on HN have some combination of thought, effort and substance to them.

mtmail 245 days ago |

Afaik 'Launch HN' is reserved for YCombinator companies. It gives an automatic ranking boost and guaranteed to hit the frontpage. HN is run by YCombinator. Not sure how the website figures out who belongs to YCombinator. I've read there's a username list and the names show up in a different color so users recognize each other.