I think I've been on the HN front page something like 30 times now since August 2021, with maybe half of those hitting it out of the park and lingering for over a day.

There are real diminishing returns in terms of follow-up traffic and follow-up effects. As to be expected, but it's worth keeping in mind that this is something that generally happens over time as the novelty of whatever you're writing about wears off. The good part is that as part of this you'll gradually get more regular readers, so there's less pronounced feast-or-famine cycles.

(Here I don't measure visits as there's so much bot traffic noise especially on anything that hits HN, but mostly focus on whether I get actual engagement, if people reach out to me, send me emails and so on)

I think ultimately a blog post isn't interesting because it's on HN, it's on HN because it's interesting.

Tryharding with regards to the HN frontpage is more likely to come at a cost of writing quality, and thus reducing the likelihood of making the front page.

▲ Aurornis 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

> There are real diminishing returns in terms of follow-up traffic and follow-up effects

I’m probably in the minority, but whenever I read a good blog or article on HN I scan for social media links and follow the author. It has been helpful to find their future work when it doesn’t catch the upvote wave on HN.

A lot of HN participants turn their nose up at other social media sites but I’ve found it very helpful for exactly this purpose. I unfollow people if they’re too chatty or they start engaging in culture war or other topics I don’t care about, which keeps my feed high quality.

▲ mooreds 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> Tryharding with regards to the HN frontpage is more likely to come at a cost of writing quality, and thus reducing the likelihood of making the front page.

Agreed. I'm always surprised by what hits on the front page.

I think the most important thing is to write something that is interesting and true for you.

Being on the front page of HN is like a TED talk--an effect, not a cause.

▲ imcritic 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

If HN had some kind of Hall of fame - you would be hanged there as a local (?) celebrity.

▲ postalcoder 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

We kind of have a hall of fame: https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders

I've been scraping /bestcomments[0] since May for https://hcker.news and here are the top users golf ranked by # of best comments.

  1st, simonw, 28
  2nd, Aurornis, 17
  3rd, paxys, 14
  4th, tptacek, 12
  T5, duxup, 9
  T5, godelski, 9
  T5, hn_throwaway_99, 9
  T6, JimDabell, 7
  T6, JumpCrisscross, 7
  T6, neilv, 7
  T7, andy99, 6
  T7, crazygringo, 6
  T7, gruez, 6
  T7, habosa, 6
  T7, kentonv, 6
  T7, kragen, 6
  T7, stego-tech, 6
  T7, userbinator, 6
  T8, afavour, 5
  T8, Animats, 5
  T8, ChrisMarshallNY, 5
  T8, codingdave, 5
  T8, dang, 5
  T8, donatj, 5
  T8, lxgr, 5
  T8, perihelions, 5

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/bestcomments

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marginalia_nu 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

If the karma from all my blogposts were associated with my HN account, I'd have so many Internet points I wouldn't know what to do with them!

	▲	renegat0x0 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		... and you have one more now.

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tptacek 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

In your FACE 'JumpCrisscross.

▲ jtbayly 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I hope we wouldn’t hang him... lol

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halfmatthalfcat 5 days ago | parent [-]

With how fickle and dichotomous HN can be, don’t put it past them.

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F0UKYOU-HN 5 days ago | parent [-]

I really don't understand the underlying "rules" here at HN. Yes I've read the "written" rules, but there is some undercurrent stuff that baffles me

▲

fragmede 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

You're self aware enough to realize that there's "some undercurrent stuff", but not self aware enough to pick any other username than F0UKYOU-HN, which just maybe might prejudice users and moderators against you. It's like wandering into a bank with a hoodie, face mask, and a gun, and wondering why security is all up in your grill about a "mysterious" something. You're being profiled at the very start by something you set for yourself. If someone comes into your house and the first thing out of their mouth is "f0uk you!", would you really be inclined to sit down and listen to them and have a thoughtful conversation, or are you going to kick them out at the first sign of trouble? At the very least, you're going to keep a close eye on them, yeah?

In meat space, you can do things to change your appearance somewhat, but people gonna people and they're gonna judge you, some times fairly; sometimes not. Online, the only thing people have to go off here is your words, and choosing F0UKYOU-HN belies a certain amount of aggression that is naturally going to start people off on the wrong foot. How do you want people to see you? You could have chosen anything, maybe something bland or generic, like mikelovesbikes32, but in choosing what you chose, you wanted to make a statement, and with your statement, you're "baffled" by why the human being on the other side of the screen might take offense?

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krapp 5 days ago | parent | prev [-]

>I post a few comments here and there and the site tells me I am commenting too often.

A moderator probably took one look at your username and comment history, decided you were a troll and rate limited your account. You need to learn how to play the game better.

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F0UKYOU-HN 5 days ago | parent [-]

OK sir, I apologize... (anything change?)

	▲	krapp 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		But the "you're posting too fast" filter is applied by the mods. I know because I've had one for a while. The expectation is that you either apologize for your behavior and have it removed or get frustrated and quietly leave. But like many of HN's operant conditioning features it doesn't really work as intended. And the aggressive and demeaning tone of a lot of your comments seems intended to invite downvotes. Are you surprised that when you call people simps and angry and selfish that you get downvotes? The validity of your comments matter far less than your tone and demeanor around here. I don't know if this is your first account here but if it isn't you should know this place is aggressively and mercilessly tone policed. edit: also editing your comments like that is just lame. For someone who constantly calls other people butthurt you really do seem to be the most butthurt and triggered person here. Sorry I tried to engage with you like a person. Bye.