Comment by falsandtru
1 year ago
There are several low-point, long-lived but highly ranked unnatural posts on the top page that appear to be manipulated. Such unnaturalness and opacity make users feel that the ranking is arbitrary and unfair, even if for good reasons. Can you display the manipulation that has been done on the ranking and other lists per post? For example, a reset of the submission time should be easily displayed.
> There are several low-point, long-lived but highly ranked unnatural posts on the top page that appear to be manipulated.
Which are they? It's important to include links so that (a) we can say what's going on, and (b) so readers can make up their own minds.
You might be talking about stories that went in to the second-chance pool (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26998308), which get a random placement on HN's front page.
If you don't know it could be a bug. Next time I find it, I will report it.
I have heard that sometimes the submission time is reset, such as when returning from the second chance pool. This could also create an unnatural ranking order, so the original time before the reset should be listed as well.
It could certainly be a bug! but it could also be a lot of other things.
Yes, the timestamp munging is an artifact of HN's re-upping system, described at https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que....
The original times are always available because the modified time is used only on the frontpage and the article's /item page. If you find the article on /from or /submitted, for example, the timestamp will be the original. The two timestamps converge over time.
3 replies →
I use the downvote button for two reasons: overwhelmingly for rude, come-uppance, and similar type of comments; very rarely for comments spreading FUD for no particular reason. I just downvoted your comment for the second reason.
Demanding transparency is fine but you’ve got to provide proof with your claims. If there are stories which feel manipulated to you link them and let the audience see, maybe you’re right.
Dang explained here that it could happen.
I’m not saying you’re wrong I.e. manipulation probably does happen, my prior=0.4 bec. it happens inmost platforms so why not here (0.5) but AFAIk HN has strong anti manipulation tools&practices in places (-0.1). Show me examples so I can update my mental model.