Well in a very real way the system has to intentionally obfuscate the 'way to the front page' because being on the front page is so valuable, thus a target for manipulation.
What I'm saying is that as soon as you find a fool proof way to submit something and have it show up on the front page, pg will 'fix' it so that you can't do that in the future just like linking the discussion in a blog post was 'fixed'.
I typically read the site from an RSS feed, which means I see everything that is submitted that makes it to the rss feed, regardless of whether it is on the 'new' page or has fallen off. I don't know what percentage of folks do that. There are also 'super powers' for some users but those are for the standard sorts of things (like make sure a YC company looking for people gets to the front page for a while).
Can you say more about what "improving the system" would entail?
I'm not looking for a guaranteed way to get to the front page. I'd guess that most of the things that don't make it, deserve not to make it, in the sense that while they might be interesting, even if most HN people saw it, it wouldn't get many votes.
My concern is that things that are clearly of interest (in the sense that they do eventually do get the upvotes in a subsequent submission) sometimes don't get noticed and don't get the upvotes they deserve (by some definition).
Or something.
> I typically read the site from an RSS feed, which means
> I see everything that is submitted that makes it to the
> rss feed, ...
Do you apply some sort of filtering, or do you literally scan everything by eye?
> Can you say more about what "improving the system"
> would entail?
My ideas are very badly formed at the moment, and I'd rather not try to put them in written form in an open forum. I wouldn't care if people stole them, I'd care more that they would look pretty stupid, because I couldn't explain them well enough. Yet.
What I'm saying is that as soon as you find a fool proof way to submit something and have it show up on the front page, pg will 'fix' it so that you can't do that in the future just like linking the discussion in a blog post was 'fixed'.
I typically read the site from an RSS feed, which means I see everything that is submitted that makes it to the rss feed, regardless of whether it is on the 'new' page or has fallen off. I don't know what percentage of folks do that. There are also 'super powers' for some users but those are for the standard sorts of things (like make sure a YC company looking for people gets to the front page for a while).
Can you say more about what "improving the system" would entail?