Skip to content
TopicTracker
From HackerNewsView original
TranslationTranslation

Ask HN: How do new users gain reach on HN

A user asks how new participants can gain visibility on Hacker News, seeking advice on building reach and engagement as an unknown contributor on the platform.

Background

- Hacker News (HN) is a tech-focused social news site run by the startup incubator Y Combinator. It has no algorithmic feed — stories and comments rank almost entirely by user upvotes, and new submissions go into a "new" page that few people visit. - New users have no built-in visibility boost, so a first post often gets zero attention unless it is upvoted quickly by a handful of established users. This creates a classic cold-start problem. - The site's anti-abuse measures (e.g., vote-ring detection, shadowbanning for spam) are opaque, so well-meaning newcomers who ask friends to upvote them can accidentally get flagged as cheaters. - Common workarounds: comment thoughtfully on popular threads (which builds karma and name recognition), submit content that is unusually relevant to the HN audience (deep tech, contrarian takes, personal projects), or post at the right time of day (roughly 6–10 AM US Eastern).

Related stories