Ask HN: How does a 0-comment, 3-upvote github.com url reach the front page?

8 points

13 years ago

There has been a lot of discussion about how HN's ranking algorithm affects position [1]. Supposedly there's an automatic penalty for some domains, including github.com.

I've posted some of my projects here hosted on github and have gotten something like 6 comments and 10 upvotes while still on the "New" page. None of them ever made it to the front page. Yet other github.com projects make it to the front page with 0 comments and only 3 upvotes [2] (could have been less before I saw it).

I don't want to come off bitter (I'm not), but there's a bad smell of favoritism and manual moderator selection here for lack of a better explanation :(

Any insight would be helpful, as I enjoy participating in the community here and want to continue doing so.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6799854

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6811490

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